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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/christmascarolinOOdickiala 


CHRISTMAS    CAROL 


IN     PROSE 


A    GHOST  STORY  OF  CHRISTMAS. 


By    CHARLES    DICKENS. 


WITH    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


BOSTON: 

TICKNOR    AND    FIELDS. 

1869. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  18C8,  by 
TICKNOR    AND    FIELDS, 
the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


Stack  Annex 


No  Christmas  story  has  gained  such  universal  regard  as  Mr. 
Dickens's  Christmas  Carol.  The  frequency  with  which  the  au- 
thor has  lately  read  that  story  to  delighted  audiences  in  America, 
as  well  as  in  England,  while  widely  extending  its  popularity,  has 
greatly  strengthened  a  true  appreciation  of  it.  Mr.  Dickens's 
American  Publishers  therefore  believe  that  a  new  edition,  giving 
adequate  pictorial  expression  to  the  various  characters  which  the 
Carol  portrays,  will  address  itself  to  a  large  circle  of  the  best 
book-lovers ;  and  they  hope  that  this  may  prove  such  an  edition. 
The  drawings  have  been  expressly  made  from  new  studies,  by 
Mr.  Eytinge,  whose  reputation  as  an  illustrator  of  Mr.  Dick- 
ens's ideals  has  been  so  well  established  by  the  designs  that 
accompany  the  Diamond  Edition.  The  engraving,  by  Mr.  An- 
thony, and  the  printing,  by  the  University  Press,  have  been 
done  with  a  skill  and  delicacy  which  may  be  trusted  to  com- 
mend them  fully  to  the  public  estimation. 


LIST  NOF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


The  Drawings  by  S.  Eytinge,  Jr.      The  Engravings  by  A.  V.  S.  Anthony. 

Scrooge's  Christmas  Visitors Frontispiece 

Scrooge  and  Marley's Page  n 

In  the  Tank 14 

The  Philanthropists 18 

Marley's  Face 22 

Marley's  Ghost 26 

The  Vision  of  Ali  Baba 34 

The  Spirit  of  Christmas  Past 36 

The  Fezziwig  Ball 47 

A  Retrospect 50 

Tiny  Tim's  Ride 56 

The  Spirit  of  Christmas  Present        .        .        .        .  '     .  58 

Bob  Cratchit  at  Home 65 

The  Wonderful  Pudding 68 

Over  the  Sea 74 

Blind-Man's-Buff 78 

Want  and  Ignorance 82 

Death's  Dominion 84 


8  LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 

On  'Change 35 

Old  Joe's .91 

"  Poor  Tiny  Tim  ! " 98 

In  the  Churchyard I0I 

Scrooge  Awakes "...  103 

The  Prize  Turkey io6 

"  I  'll  raise  your  Salary  " ,  x  IO 


A 


■[  A  CHRISTMAS  CAROL   \» 


ARLEY    was   dead,    to  begin   with.  '^ 
There  is  no  doubt  whatever  about 
that.     The  register  of  his  burial  was  signed  by  the  clergy- 
man, the   clerk,  the   undertaker,  and   the   chief  mourner. 
Scrooge  signed  it.     And   Scrooge's  name  was  good  upon 
'Change  for  anything  he  chose  to  put  his  hand  to. 

Old  Marley  was  as  dead  as  a  door-nail. 

Mind !  I  don't  mean  to  say  that  I  know,  of  my  own 
knowledge,  what  there  is  particularly  dead  about  a  door-nail. 
I  might  have  been  inclined,  myself,  to  regard  a  coffin-nail 
as  the  deadest  piece  of  ironmongery  in  the  trade.  But  the 
wisdom  of  our  ancestors  is  in  the  simile  ;  and  my  unhal- 
lowed hands  shall  not  disturb  it,  or  the  Country 's  done 
for.  You  will  therefore  permit  me  to  repeat,  emphatically, 
that  Marley  was  as  dead  as  a  door-nail. 

Scrooge  knew  he  was  dead  ?  Of  course  he  did.  How 
could  it  be  otherwise  ?  Scrooge  and  he  were  partners  for  I 
don't  know  how  many  years.  Scrooge  was  his  sole  execu- 
tor, his  sole  administrator,  his  sole  assign,  his  sole  residu- 


12  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

ary  legatee,  his  sole  friend,  and  sole  mourner.  And  even 
Scrooge  was  not  so  dreadfully  cut  up  by  the  sad  event,  but 
that  he  was  an  excellent  man  of  business  on  the  very  day 
of  the  funeral,  and  solemnized  it  with  an  undoubted  bar- 
gain. 

The  mention  of  Marley's  funeral  brings  me  back  to  the 
point  I  started  from.  There  was  no  doubt  that  Marley  was 
dead.  This  must  be  distinctly  understood,  or  nothing  won- 
derful can  come  of  the  story  I  am  going  to  relate.  If  we 
were  not  perfectly  convinced  that  Hamlet's  Father  died  be- 
fore the  play  began,  there  would  be  nothing  more  remarka- 
ble in  his  taking  a  stroll  at  night,  in  an  easterly  wind,  upon 
his  own  ramparts,  than  there  would  be  in  any  other  middle- 
aged  gentleman  rashly  turning  out  after  dark  in  a  breezy 
spot,  —  say  Saint  Paul's  Churchyard,  for  instance,  —  liter- 
ally to  astonish  his  son's  weak  mind. 

Scrooge  never  painted  out  Old  Marley's  name.  There  it 
stood,  years  afterwards,  above  the  warehouse  door :  Scrooge 
and  Marley.  The  firm  was  known  as  Scrooge  and  Marley. 
Sometimes  people  new  to  the  business  called  Scrooge 
Scrooge,  and  sometimes  Marley,  but  he  answered  to  both 
names.     It  was  all  the  same  to  him. 

Oh  !  But  he  was  a  tight-fisted  hand  at  the  grindstone, 
Scrooge  !  a  squeezing,  wrenching,  grasping,  scraping,  clutch- 
ing, covetous  old  sinner !  Hard  and  sharp  as  flint  from 
which  no  steel  had  ever  struck  out  generous  fire  ;  secret, 
and  self-contained,  and  solitary  as  an  oyster.  The  cold 
within  him  froze  his  old  feature*,  nipped  his  pointed  nose, 
shrivelled  his  cheek,  stiffened  his  gait  ;  made  his  eyes  red, 
his  thin  lips  blue  ;  and  spoke  out  shrewdly  in  his  grating 
voice.  A  frosty  rime  was  on  his  head,  and  on  his  eyebrows, 
and  his  wiry  chin.     He  carried  his  own  low  temperature 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  1 3 

always  about  with  him  :  he  iced  his  office  in  the  dog-days ; 
and  did  n't  thaw  it  one  degree  at  Christmas. 

External  heat  and  cold  had  little  influence  on  Scrooge. 
No  warmth  could  warm,  no  wintry  weather  chill  him.  No 
wind  that  blew  was  bitterer  than  he,  no  falling  snow  was 
more  intent  upon  its  purpose,  no  pelting  rain  less  open  to 
entreaty.  Foul  weather  did  n't  know  where  to  have  him. 
The  heaviest  rain,  and  snow,  and  hail,  and  sleet  could  boast 
of  the  advantage  over  him  in  only  one  respect.  They 
often  "  came  down  "  handsomely,  and  Scrooge  never  did. 

Nobody  ever  stopped  him  in  the  street  to  say,  with  glad- 
some looks,  "  My  dear  Scrooge,  how  are  you  ?  When  will 
you  come  to  see  me  ? "  No  beggars  implored  him  to  be- 
stow a  trifle,  no  children  asked  him  what  it  was  o'clock,  no 
man  or  woman  ever  once  in  all  his  life  inquired  the  way 
to  such  and  such  a  place  of  Scrooge.  Even  the  blind- 
men's  dogs  appeared  to  know  him  ;  and,  when  they  saw 
him  coming  on,  would  tug  their  owners  into  doorways  and 
up  courts  ;  and  then  would  wag  their  tails  as  though  they 
said,  "  No  eye  at  all  is  better  than  an  evil  eye,  dark  mas- 
ter ! " 

But  what  did  Scrooge  care !  It  was  the  very  thing  he 
liked.  To  edge  his  way  along  the  crowded  paths  of  life, 
warning  all  human  sympathy  to  keep  its  distance,  was  what 
the  knowing  ones  call  "  nuts  "  to  Scrooge. 

Once  upon  a  time,  —  of  all  the  good  days  in  the  year,  on 
Christmas  Eve,  —  old  Scrooge  sat  busy  in  his  counting- 
house.  It  was  cold,  bleak,  biting  weather,  foggy  withal  ; 
and  he  could  hear  the  people  in  the  court  outside  go  wheez- 
ing up  and  down,  beating  their  hands  upon  their  breasts, 
and  stamping  their  feet  upon  the  pavement  stones  to  warm 
them.     The  city  clocks  had  only  just  gone  three,  but  it  was 


14  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

quite  dark  already,  —  it  had  not  been  light  all  day,  —  and 
candles  were  flaring  in  the  windows  of  the  neighboring 
offices,  like  ruddy  smears  upon  the  palpable  brown  air. 
The  fog  came  pouring  in  at  every  chink  and  keyhole,  and 
was  so  dense  without,  that,  although  the  court  was  of  the 
narrowest,  the  houses  opposite  were  mere  phantoms.  To 
see  the  dingy  cloud  come  drooping  down,  obscuring  every- 
thing, one  might  have  thought  that  Nature  lived  hard  by, 
and  was  brewing  on  a  large  scale. 

The  door  of  Scrooge's  counting-house  was  open,  that  he 
might  keep  his  eye  upon  his  clerk,  who,  in  a  dismal  little 
cell  beyond,  a  sort  of  tank,  was  copying  letters.  Scrooge 
had  a  very  small  fire,  but  the  clerk's  fire  was  so  very  much 
smaller  that  it  looked  like  one  coal.  But  he  could  n't  re- 
plenish it,  for  Scrooge  kept  the  coal-box  in  his  own  room  ; 
and  so  surely  as  the  clerk  came  in  with  the  shovel,  the 
master  predicted  that  it  would  be  necessary  for  them  to 
part.  Wherefore  the  clerk  put  on  his  white  comforter, 
and  tried  to  warm  himself  at  the  candle  ;  in  which  effort, 
not  being  a  man  of  strong  imagination,  he  failed. 

"  A  merry  Christmas,  uncle !  God  save  you  ! "  cried  a 
cheerful  voice.  It  was  the  voice  of  Scrooge's  nephew,  who 
came  upon  him  so  quickly  that  this  was  the  first  intimation 
he  had  of  his  approach. 

"  Bah  !  "  said  Scrooge,  "  humbug !  " 

He  had  so  heated  himself  with  rapid  walking  in  the  fog 
and  frost,  this  nephew  of  Scrooge's,  that  he  was  all  in  a 
glow  ;  his  face  was  ruddy  and  handsome  ;  his  eyes  sparkled, 
and  his  breath  smoked  again. 

"  Christmas  a  humbug,  uncle  ! "  said  Scrooge's  nephew. 
"  You  don't  mean  that,  I  am  sure  ? " 

"  I  do,"  said  Scrooge.     "  Merry  Christmas  !     What  right 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  1 5 

have  you  to  be  merry?  What  reason  have  you  to  be 
merry  ?     You  're  poor  enough." 

"  Come  then,"  returned  the  nephew,  gayly.  "  What 
right  have  you  to  be  dismal  ?  What  reason  have  you  to  be 
morose  ?     You  're  rich  enough." 

Scrooge,  having  no  better  answer  ready  on  the  spur  of 
the  moment,  said,  "Bah!"  again,  and  followed  it  up  with 
"  Humbug ! " 

"  Don't  be  cross,  uncle  ! "  said  the  nephew. 

"  What  else  can  I  be,"  returned  the  uncle,  "  when  I  live 
in  such  a  world  of  fools  as  this  ?  Merry  Christmas  !  Out 
upon  merry  Christmas!  What's  Christmas  time  to  you 
but  a  time  for  paying  bills  without  money  ;  a  time  for 
finding  yourself  a  year  older,  and  not  an  hour  richer ;  a 
time  for  balancing  your  books,  and  having  every  item  in 
'em  through  a  round  dozen  of  months  presented  dead 
against  you  ?  If  I  could  work  my  will,"  said  Scrooge,  in- 
dignantly, "  every  idiot  who  goes  about  with  '  Merry  Christ- 
mas '  on  his  lips  should  be  boiled  with  his  own  pudding, 
and  buried  with  a  stake  of  holly  through  his  heart.  He 
should  ! " 

"  Uncle  ! "  pleaded  the  nephew. 

"  Nephew  !  "  returned  the  uncle,  sternly,  "  keep  Christ- 
mas in  your  own  way,  and  let  me  keep  it  in  mine." 

"  Keep  it !  "  repeated  Scrooge's  nephew.  "  But  you  don't 
keep  it." 

"  Let  me  leave  it  alone,  then,"  said  Scrooge.  "  Much 
good  may  it  do  you  !     Much  good  it  has  ever  done  you  !  " 

"  There  are  many  things  from  which  I  might  have  de- 
rived good,  by  which  I  have  not  profited,  I  dare  say,"  re- 
turned the  nephew,  "  Christmas  among  the  rest.  But  I 
am  sure  I  have  always  thought  of  Christmas  time,  when  it 


1 6  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

has  come  round,  —  apart  from  the  veneration  due  to  its 
sacred  name  and  origin,  if  anything  belonging  to  it  can  be 
apart  from  that,  —  as  a  good  time  ;  a  kind,  forgiving,  char- 
itable, pleasant  time ;  the  only  time  I  know  of,  in  the  long 
calendar  of  the  year,  when  men  and  women  seem  by  one 
consent  to  open  their  shut-up  hearts  freely,  and  to  think  of 
people  below  them  as  if  they  really  were  fellow-passengers 
to  the  grave,  and  not  another  race  of  creatures  bound  on 
other  journeys.  And  therefore,  uncle,  though  it  has  never 
put  a  scrap  of  gold  or  silver  in  my  pocket,  I  believe  that  it 
has  done  me  good,  and  will  do  me  good  ;  and  I  say,  God 
bless  it !  " 

The  clerk  in  the  tank  involuntarily  applauded.  Becom- 
ing immediately  sensible  of  the  impropriety,  he  poked  the 
fire,  and  extinguished  the  last  frail  spark  forever. 

" Let  me  hear  another  sound  from  you"  said  Scrooge, 
"  and  you  '11  keep  your  Christmas  by  losing  your  situation  ; 
you  're  quite  a  powerful  speaker,  sir,"  he  added,  turning  to 
his  nephew.     "  1  wonder  you  don't  go  into  Parliament." 

"  Don't  be  angry,  uncle.  Come  !  Dine  with  us  to-mor- 
row." 

Scrooge  said  that  he  would  see  him  —  yes,  indeed  he  did. 
He  went  the  whole  length  of  the  expression,  and  said  that 
he  would  see  him  in   that  extremity  first. 

"  But  why  ?  "  cried  Scrooge's  nephew.     "  Why  ?  " 

"  Why  did  you  get  married  ? "  said  Scrooge. 

"  Because  I  fell  in  love." 

"Because  you  fell  in  love !"  growled  Scrooge,  as  if  that 
were  the  only  one  thing  in  the  world  more  ridiculous  than 
a  merry  Christmas.     "  Good  afternoon  ! " 

"  Nay,  uncle,  but  you  never  came  to  see  me  before  that 
happened.     Why  give  it  as  a  reason  for  not  coming  now  ? " 

"  Good  afternoon,"  said  Scrooge. 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  1 7 

"  I  want  nothing  from  you  ;  I  ask  nothing  of  you ;  why 
cannot  we  be  friends  ?  " 

"  Good  afternoon,"  said  Scrooge. 

"  I  am  sorry,  with  all  my  heart,  to  find  you  so  resolute. 
We  have  never  had  any  quarrel,  to  which  I  have  been  a 
party.  But  I  have  made  the  trial  in  homage  to  Christmas, 
and  I  '11  keep  my  Christmas  humor  to  the  last.  So  A 
Merry  Christmas,  uncle  ! " 

"  Good  afternoon  !  "  said  Scrooge. 

"  And  A  Happy  New- Year  !  " 

"  Good  afternoon  !  "  said  Scrooge. 

His  nephew  left  the  room  without  an  angry  word,  not- 
withstanding. He  stopped  at  the  outer  door  to  bestow  the 
greetings  of  the  season  on  the  clerk,  who,  cold  as  he  was, 
was  warmer  than  Scrooge  ;  for  he  returned  them  cordially. 

"  There  's  another  fellow,"  muttered  Scrooge,  who  over- 
heard him  ;  "  my  clerk,  with  fifteen  shillings  a  week,  and  a 
wife  and  family,  talking  about  a  merry  Christmas.  I  '11 
retire  to  Bedlam." 

This  lunatic,  in  letting  Scrooge's  nephew  out,  had  let  two 
other  people  in.  They  were  portly  gentlemen,  pleasant 
to  behold,  and  now  stood,  with  their  hats  off,  in  Scrooge's 
office.  They  had  books  and  papers  in  their  hands,  and 
bowed  to  him. 

"  Scrooge  and  Marley's,  I  believe,"  said  one  of  the  gen- 
tlemen, referring  to  his  list.  "  Have  I  the  pleasure  of 
addressing  Mr.  Scrooge  or  Mr.  Marley  ? " 

"  Mr.  Marley  has  been  dead  these  seven  years,"  Scrooge 
replied.     "  He  died  seven  years  ago  this  very  night." 

"  We  have  no  doubt  his  liberality  is  well  represented  by 
his  surviving  partner,"  said  the  gentleman,  presenting  his 
credentials. 


1 8  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

It  certainly  was ;  for  they  had  been  two  kindred  spirits. 
At  the  ominous  word  "  liberality  "  Scrooge  frowned,  and 
shook  his  head,  and  handed  the  credentials  back. 

"  At  this  festive  season  of  the  year,  Mr.  Scrooge,"  said 
the  gentleman,  taking  up  a  pen,  "  it  is  more  than  usually 
desirable  that  we  should  make  some  slight  provision  for 
the  Poor  and  destitute,  who  suffer  greatly  at  the  present 
time.  Many  thousands  are  in  want  of  common  necessaries  ; 
hundreds  of  thousands  are  in  want  of  common  comforts, 
sir." 

"  Are  there  no  prisons  ?  "  asked  Scrooge. 

"  Plenty  of  prisons,"  said  the  gentleman,  laying  down  the 
pen  again. 

"  And  the  Union  workhouses  ? "  demanded  Scrooge. 
"  Are  they  still  in  operation  ? " 

"  They  are.  Still,"  returned  the  gentleman,  "  I  wish 
I  could  say  they  were  not." 

"  The  Treadmill  and  the  Poor  Law  are  in  full  vigor, 
then  ?  "  said  Scrooge. 

"  Both  very  busy,  sir." 

■  O,  I  was  afraid,  from  what  you  said  at  first,  that  some- 
thing had  occurred  to  stop  them  in  their  useful  course," 
said  Scrooge.     "  I  am  very  glad  to  hear  it." 

"  Under  the  impression  that  they  scarcely  furnish  Chris- 
tian cheer  of  mind  or  body  to  the  multitude,"  returned  the 
gentleman,  "  a  few  of  us  are  endeavoring  to  raise  a  fund 
to  buy  the  Poor  some  meat  and  drink,  and  means  of 
warmth.  We  choose  this  time,  because  it  is  a  time,  of  all 
others,  when  Want  is  keenly  felt,  and  Abundance  rejoices. 
What  shall  I  put  you  down  for  ?  " 

"  Nothing  !"  Scrooge  replied. 

"  You  wish  to  be  anonymous  ?  " 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  19 

"  I  wish  to  be  left  alone,"  said  Scrooge.  "  Since  you  ask 
me  what  I  wish,  gentlemen,  that  is  my  answer.  I  don't 
make  merry  myself  at  Christmas,  and  I  can't  afford  to  make 
idle  people  merry.  I  help  to  support  the  establishments  I 
have  mentioned,  —  they  cost  enough;  and  those  who  are 
badly  off  must  go  there." 

"  Many  can't  go  there  ;  and  many  would  rather  die." 

"  If  they  would  rather  die,"  said  Scrooge,  "  they  had  bet- 
ter do  it,  and  decrease  the  surplus  population.  Besides,  — 
excuse  me,  —  I  don't  know  that." 

"  But  you  might  know  it,"  observed  the  gentleman. 

"  It  's  not  my  business,"  Scrooge  returned.  "  It  's  enough 
for  a  man  to  understand  his  own  business,  and  not  to  inter- 
fere with  other  people's.  Mine  occupies  me  constantly. 
Good  afternoon,  gentlemen  !  " 

Seeing  clearly  that  it  would  be  useless  to  pursue  their 
point,  the  gentlemen  withdrew.  Scrooge  resumed  his  labors 
with  an  improved  opinion  of  himself,  and  in  a  more  fa- 
cetious temper  than  was  usual  with  him. 

Meanwhile  the  fog  and  darkness  thickened  so  that  people 
ran  about  with  flaring  links,  proffering  their  services  to  go 
before  horses  in  carriages,  and  conduct  them  on  their  way. 
The  ancient  tower  of  a  church,  whose  gruff  old  bell  was 
always  peeping  slyly  down  at  Scrooge  out  of  a  gothic  win- 
dow in  the  wall,  became  invisible,  and  struck  the  hours  and 
quarters  in  the  clouds,  with  tremulous  vibrations  afterwards, 
as  if  its  teeth  were  chattering  in  its  frozen  head  up  there. 
The  cold  became  intense.  In  the  main  street,  at  the  corner 
of  the  court,  some  laborers  were  repairing  the  gas-pipes( 
and  had  lighted  a  great  fire  in  a  brazier,  round  which  a 
party  of  ragged  men  and  boys  were  gathered  ;  warming 
their  hands  and  winking  their  eyes  before  the  blaze  in  rap- 


20  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

ture.  The  water-plug  being  left  in  solitude,  its  overflowings 
suddenly  congealed,  and  turned  to  misanthropic  ice.  The 
brightness  of  the  shops,  where  holly  sprigs  and  berries 
crackled  in  the  lamp  heat  of  the  windows,  made  pale  faces 
ruddy  as  they  passed.  Poulterers'  and  grocers'  trades  be- 
came a  splendid  joke  ;  a  glorious  pageant,  with  which  it 
was  next  to  impossible  to  believe  that  such  dull  principles 
as  bargain  and  sale  had  anything  to  do.  The  Lord  Mayor, 
in  the  stronghold  of  the  mighty  Mansion  House,  gave 
orders  to  his  fifty  cooks  and  butlers  to  keep  Christmas  as 
a  Lord  Mayor's  household  should  ;  and  even  the  little  tai- 
lor, whom  he  had  fined  five  shillings  on  the  previous  Mon- 
day for  being  drunk  and  bloodthirsty  in  the  streets,  stirred 
up  to-morrow's  pudding  in  his  garret,  while  his  lean  wife 
and  the -baby  sallied  out  to  buy  the  beef. 

Foggier  yet,  and  colder !  Piercing,  searching,  biting 
cold.  If  the  good  St.  Dunstan  had  but  nipped  the  Evil 
Spirit's  nose  with  a  touch  of  such  weather  as  that,  instead 
of  using  his  familiar  weapons,  then  indeed  he  would  have 
roared  to  lusty  purpose.  The  owner  of  one  scant  young 
nose,  gnawed  and  mumbled  by  the  hungry  cold  as  bones 
are  gnawed  by  dogs,  stooped  down  at  Scrooge's  keyhole  to 
regale  him  with  a  Christmas  carol :  but  at  the  first  sound 
of 

"  God  bless  you,  merry  gentleman, 
May  nothing  you  dismay!  " 

Scrooge  seized  the  ruler  with  such  energy  of  action,  that 
the  singer  fled  in  terror,  leaving  the  keyhole  to  the  fog,  and 
even  more  congenial  frost. 

At  length  the  hour  of  shutting  up  the  counting-house 
arrived.  With  an  ill-will  Scrooge  dismounted  from  his 
stool,  and  tacitly  admitted  the  fact  to  the  expectant  clerk 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  21 

in  the  Tank,  who  instantly  snuffed  his  candle  out,  and  put 
on  his  hat. 

"  You  '11  want  all  day  to-morrow,  I  suppose  ? "  said 
Scrooge. 

"  If  quite  convenient,  sir." 

"  It 's  not  convenient,"  said  Scrooge,  "  and  it 's  not  fair. 
If  I  was  to  stop  half  a  crown  for  it,  you  'd  think  yourself  ill- 
used,  I  '11  be  bound  ?  " 

The  clerk  smiled  faintly. 

"  And  yet,"  said  Scrooge,  "  you  don't  think  me  ill-used 
when  I  pay  a  day's  wages  for  no  work." 

The  clerk  observed  that  it  was  only  once  a  year. 

"  A  poor  excuse  for  picking  a  man's  pocket  every  twenty- 
fifth  of  December  !  "  said  Scrooge,  buttoning  his  great-coat 
to  the  chin.  "  But  I  suppose  you  must  have  the  whole  day. 
Be  here  all  the  earlier  next  morning." 

The  clerk  promised  that  he  would  ;  and  Scrooge  walked 
out  with  a  growl.  The  office  was  closed  in  a  twinkling, 
and  the  clerk,  with  the  long  ends  of  his  white  comforter 
dangling  below  his  waist  (for  he  boasted  no  great-coat), 
went  down  a  slide  on  Cornhill,  at  the  end  of  a  lane  of  boys, 
twenty  times,  in  honor  of  its  being  Christmas  Eve,  and 
then  ran  home  to  Camden  Town  as  hard  as  he  could  pelt, 
to  play  at  blindman's-buff. 

Scrooge  took  his  melancholy  dinner  in  his  usual  melan- 
choly tavern  ;  and  having  read  all  the  newspapers,  and 
beguiled  the  rest  of  the  evening  with  his  banker's  book, 
went  home  to  bed.  He  lived  in  chambers  which  had  once 
belonged  to  his  deceased  partner.  They  were  a  gloomy 
suite  of  rooms,  in  a  lowering  pile  of  building  up  a  yard, 
where  it  had  so  little  business  to  be,  that  one  could  scarcely 
help  fancying  it  must  have  run  there  when  it  was  a  young 


22  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

house,  playing  at  hide-and-seek  with  other  houses,  and 
have  forgotten  the  way  out  again.  It  was  old  enough  now, 
and  dreary  enough  ;  for  nobody  lived  in  it  but  Scrooge,  the 
other  rooms  being  all  let  out  as  offices.  The  yard  was  so 
dark  that  even  Scrooge,  who  knew  its  every  stone,  was 
fain  to  grope  with  his  hands.  The  fog  and  frost  so  hung 
about  the  black  old  gateway  of  the  house,  that  it  seemed  as 
if  the  Genius  of  the  Weather  sat  in  mournful  meditation  on 
the  threshold. 

Now  it  is  a  fact  that  there  was  nothing  at  all  particular 
about  the  knocker  on  the  door,  except  that  it  was  very 
large.  It  is  also  a  fact  that  Scrooge  had  seen  it,  night  and 
morning,  during  his  whole  residence  in  that  place  ;  also, 
that  Scrooge  had  as  little  of  what  is  called  fancy  about  him 
as  any  man  in  the  city  of  London,  even  including  —  which 
is  a  bold  word — the  corporation,  aldermen,  and  livery. 
Let  it  also  be  borne  in  mind,  that  Scrooge  had  not  be- 
stowed one  thought  on  Marley  since  his  last  mention  of 
his  seven-years'  dead  partner  that  afternoon.  And  then 
let  any  man  explain  to  me,  if  he  can,  how  it  happened  that 
Scrooge,  having  his  key  in  the  lock  of  the  door,  saw  in  the 
knocker,  —  without  its  undergoing  any  intermediate  pro- 
cess of  change,  — not  a  knocker,  but  Marley's  face. 

Marley's  face.  It  was  not  in  impenetrable  shadow,  as 
the  other  objects  in  the  yard  were,  but  had  a  dismal  light 
about  it,  like  a  bad  lobster  in  a  dark  cellar.  It  was  not 
angry  or  ferocious,  but  looked  at  Scrooge  as  Marley  used 
to  look,  with  ghostly  spectacles  turned  up  on  its  ghostly 
forehead.  The  hair  was  curiously  stirred,  as  if  by  breath 
or  hot  air  ;  and,  though  the  eyes  were  wide  open,  they 
were  perfectly  motionless.  That,  and  its  livid  color,  made 
it  horrible  ;  but  its  horror  seemed  to  be  in  spite  of  the  face, 


■HHMWHM 


■fit 


I 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  23 

and  beyond  its  control,  rather  than  a  part  of  its  own  ex- 
pression. 

As  Scrooge  looked  fixedly  at  this  phenomenon,  it  was  a 
knocker  again. 

To  say  that  he  was  not  startled,  or  that  his  blood  was 
not  conscious  of  a  terrible  sensation  to  which  it  had  been 
a  stranger  from  infancy,  would  be  untrue.  But  he  put  his 
hand  upon  the  key  he  had  relinquished,  turned  it  sturdily, 
walked  in,  and  lighted  his  candle. 

He  did  pause,  with  a  moment's  irresolution,  before  he 
shut  the  door,  and  he  did  look  cautiously  behind  it  first, 
as  if  he  half  expected  to  be  terrified  with  the  sight  of 
Marley's  pigtail  sticking  out  into  the  hall.  But  there  was 
nothing  on  the  back  of  the  door,  except  the  screws  and 
nuts  that  held  the  knocker  on,  so  he  said,  "  Pooh,  pooh  ! " 
and  closed  it  with  a  bang. 

The  sound  resounded  through  the  house  like  thunder. 
Every  room  above,  and  every  cask  in  the  wine-merchant's 
cellars  below,  appeared  to  have  a  separate  peal  of  echoes 
of  its  own.  Scrooge  was  not  a  man  to  be  frightened  by 
echoes.  He  fastened  the  door,  and  walked  across  the  hall, 
and  up  the  stairs  ;  slowly  too  :  trimming  his  candle  as  he 
went. 

You  may  talk  vaguely  about  driving  a  coach  and  six  up 
a  good  old  flight  of  stairs,  or  through  a  bad  young  Act  of 
Parliament  ;  but  I  mean  to  say  you  might  have  got  a 
hearse  up  that  staircase,  and  taken  it  broadwise,  with  the 
splinter-bar  towards  the  wall  and  the  door  towards  the 
balustrades,  and  done  it  easy.  There  was  plenty  of  width 
for  that,  and  room  to  spare  ;  which  is  perhaps  the  reason 
why  Scrooge  thought  he  saw  a  locomotive  hearse  going  on 
before  him  in  the  gloom.     Half  a  dozen  gas-lamps  out  of 


24  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

the  street  would  n't  have  lighted  the  entry  too  well,  so  you 
may  suppose  that  it  was  pretty  dark  with  Scrooge's  dip. 

Up  Scrooge  went,  not  caring  a  button  for  that.  Dark- 
ness is  cheap,  and  Scrooge  liked  it.  But,  before  he  shut 
his  heavy  door,  he  walked  through  his  rooms  to  see  that  all 
was  right.  He  had  just  enough  recollection  of  the  face  to 
desire  to  do  that. 

Sitting-room,  bedroom,  lumber-room.  All  as  they  should 
be.  Nobody  under  the  table,  nobody  under  the  sofa  ;  a 
small  fire  in  the  grate  ;  spoon  and  basin  ready  ;  and  the 
little  saucepan  of  gruel  (Scrooge  had  a  cold  in  his  head) 
upon  the  hob.  Nobody  under  the  bed ;  nobody  in  the 
closet ;  nobody  in  his  dressing-gown,  which  was  hanging  up 
in  a  suspicious  attitude  against  the  wall.  Lumber-room  as 
usual.  Old  fire-guard,  old  shoes,  two  fish-baskets,  washing- 
stand  on  three  legs,  and  a  poker. 

Quite  satisfied,  he  closed  his  door,  and  locked  himself  in  ; 
double-locked  himself  in,  which  was  not  his  custom.  Thus 
secured  against  surprise,  he  took  off  his  cravat ;  put  on  his 
dressing-gown  and  slippers,  and  his  nightcap  ;  and  sat  down 
before  the  fire  to  take  his  gruel. 

It  was  a  very  low  fire  indeed  ;  nothing  on  such  a  bitter 
night.  He  was  obliged  to  sit  close  to  it,  and  brood  over  it, 
before  he  could  extract  the  least  sensation  of  warmth  from 
such  a  handful  of  fuel.  The  fireplace  was  an  old  one,  built 
by  some  Dutch  merchant  long  ago,  and  paved  all  round 
with  quaint  Dutch  tiles,  designed  to  illustrate  the  Scrip- 
tures. There  were  Cains  and  Abels,  Pharaoh's  daughters, 
Queens  of  Sheba,  Angelic  messengers  descending  through 
the  air  on  clouds  like  feather-beds,  Abrahams,  Belshazzars, 
Apostles  putting  off  to  sea  in  butter-boats,  hundreds  of 
figures  to  attract  his  thoughts  ;  and  yet  that  face  of  Marley, 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  25 

seven  years  dead,  came  like  the  ancient  Prophet's  rod,  and 
swallowed  up  the  whole.  If  each  smooth  tile  had  been  a 
blank  at  first,  with  power  to  shape  some  picture  on  its  sur- 
face from  the  disjointed  fragments  of  his  thoughts,  there 
would  have  been  a  copy  of  old  Marley's  head  on  every 
one. 

"  Humbug  !"  said  Scrooge  ;  and  walked  across  the  room. 

After  several  turns,  he  sat  down  again.  As  he  threw  his 
head  back  in  the  chair,  his  glance  happened  to  rest  upon  a 
bell,  a  disused  bell,  that  hung  in  the  room,  and  communi- 
cated for  some  purpose  now  forgotten  with  a  chamber  in 
the  highest  story  of  the  building.  It  was  with  great  aston- 
ishment, and  with  a  strange,  inexplicable  dread,  that,  as  he 
looked,  he  saw  this  bell  begin  to  swing.  It  swung  so  softly 
in  the  outset  that  it  scarcely  made  a  sound  ;  but  soon  it 
rang  out  loudly,  and  so  did  every  bell  in  the  house. 

This  might  have  lasted  half  a  minute,  or  a  minute,  but  it 
seemed  an  hour.  The  bells  ceased  as  they  had  begun, 
together.  They  were  succeeded  by  a  clanking  noise,  deep 
down  below,  as  if  some  person  were  dragging  a  heavy  chain 
over  the  casks  in  the  wine-merchant's  cellar.  Scrooge  then 
remembered  to  have  heard  that  ghosts  in  haunted  houses 
were  described  as  dragging  chains. 

The  cellar-door  flew  open  with  a  booming  sound,  and  then 
he  heard  the  noise  much  louder  on  the  floors  below  ;  then 
coming  up  the  stairs  ;  then  coming  straight  towards  his 
door. 

"  It  's  humbug  still ! "  said  Scrooge.  "  I  won't  be- 
lieve it." 

His  color  changed  though,  when,  without  a  pause,  it 
came  on  through  the  heavy  door,  and  passed  into  the  room 
before  his  eyes.      Upon  its  coming   in,   the   dying   flame 


26  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

leaped  up,  as  though  it  cried,  "  I  know  him  !  Marley's 
ghost !  "  and  fell  again. 

The  same  face :  the  very  same.  Marley  in  his  pigtail, 
usual  waistcoat,  tights,  and  boots  ;  the  tassels  on  the  latter 
bristling,  like  his  pigtail,  and  his  coat-skirts,  and  the  hair 
upon  his  head.  The  chain  he  drew  was  clasped  about  his 
middle.  It  was  long  and  wound  about  him  like  a  tail  ;  and 
it  was  made  (for  Scrooge  observed  it  closely)  of  cash-boxes, 
keys,  padlocks,  ledgers,  deeds,  and  heavy  purses  wrought  in 
steel.  His  body  was  transparent :  so  that  Scrooge,  observ- 
ing him,  and  looking  through  his  waistcoat,  could  see  the 
two  buttons  on  his  coat  behind. 

Scrooge  had  often  heard  it  said  that  Marley  had  no 
bowels,  but  he  had  never  believed  it  until  now. 

No,  nor  did  he  believe  it  even  now.  Though  he  looked 
the  phantom  through  and  through,  and  saw  it  standing 
before  him  ;  though  he  felt  the  chilling  influence  of  its 
death-cold  eyes,  and  marked  the  very  texture  of  the  folded 
kerchief  bound  about  its  head  and  chin,  which  wrapper  he 
had  not  observed  before, —  he  was  still  incredulous,  and 
fought  against  his  senses. 

"  How  now !  "  said  Scrooge,  caustic  and  cold  as  ever. 
"  What  do  you  want  with  me  ? " 

"  Much  !  "  — Marley's  voice,  no  doubt  about  it. 

"  Who  are  you  ?  " 

"  Ask  me  who  I  was." 

"  Who  were  you  then  ?  "  said  Scrooge,  raising  his  voice. 
"  You  're  particular,  for  a  shade."  He  was  going  to  say 
"  to  a  shade,"  but  substituted  this  as  more  appropriate. 

"  In  life,  I  was  your  partner,  Jacob  Marley." 

"  Can  you  —  can  you  sit  down  ?  "  asked  Scrooge,  looking 
doubtfully  at  him. 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  2"] 

"  I  can." 

"  Do  it,  then." 

Scrooge  asked  the  question,  because  he  did  n't  know 
whether  a  ghost  so  transparent  might  find  himself  in  a  con- 
dition to  take  a  chair ;  and  felt  that,  in  the  event  of  its 
being  impossible,  it  might  involve  the  necessity  of  an  em- 
barrassing explanation.  But  the  Ghost  sat  down  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  fireplace,  as  if  he  were  quite  used  to  it. 

"  You  don't  believe  in  me,"  observed  the  Ghost. 

"  I  don't,"  said  Scrooge. 

"  What  evidence  would  you  have  of  my  reality  beyond 
that  of  your  own  senses  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Scrooge. 

"  Why  do  you  doubt  your  senses  ? " 

"  Because,"  said  Scrooge,  "  a  little  thing  affects  them. 
A  slight  disorder  of  the  stomach  makes  them  cheats.  You 
may  be  an  undigested  bit  of  beef,  a  blot  of  mustard,  a 
crumb  of  cheese,  a  fragment  of  an  underdone  potato. 
There  's  more  of  gravy  than  of  grave  about  you,  whatever 
you  are ! " 

Scrooge  was  not  much  in  the  habit  of  cracking  jokes,  nor 
did  he  feel  in  his  heart  by  any  means  waggish  then.  The 
truth  is,  that  he  tried  to  be  smart  as  a  means  of  distracting 
his  own  attention,  and  keeping  down  his  terror ;  for  the 
spectre's  voice  disturbed  the  very  marrow  in  his  bones. 

To  sit  staring  at  those  fixed,  glazed  eyes  in  silence  for  a 
moment  would  play,  Scrooge  felt,  the  very  deuce  with  him. 
There  was  something  very  awful,  too,  in  the  spectre's  being 
provided  with  an  infernal  atmosphere  of  his  own.  Scrooge 
could  not  feel  it  himself,  but  this  was  clearly  the  case  ;  for 
though  the  Ghost  sat  perfectly  motionless,  its  hair  and 
skirts  and  tassels  were  still  agitated  as  by  the  hot  vapor 
from  an  oven. 


28  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL, 

"  You  see  this  toothpick  ? "  said  Scrooge,  returning 
quickly  to  the  charge,  for  the  reason  just  assigned,  and 
wishing,  though  it  were  only  for  a  second,  to  divert  the 
vision's  stony  gaze  from  himself. 

"  I  do,"  replied  the  Ghost. 

"  You  are  not  looking  at  it,"  said  Scrooge. 

"  But  I  see  it,"  said  the  Ghost,   "  notwithstanding." 

"  Well  !  "  returned  Scrooge,  "  I  have  but  to  swallow  this, 
and  be  for  the  rest  of  my  days  persecuted  by  a  legion  of 
goblins,  all  of  my  own  creation.  Humbug,  I  tell  you  ; 
humbug  !" 

At  this,  the  spirit  raised  a  frightful  cry,  and  shook  its 
chain  with  such  a  dismal  and  appalling  noise,  that  Scrooge 
held  on  tight  to  his  chair,  to  save  himself  from  falling  in  a 
swoon.  But  how  much  greater  was  his  horror,  when,  the 
phantom  taking  off  the  bandage  round  his  head,  as  if  it 
were  too  warm  to  wear  in-doors,  its  lower  jaw  dropped 
down  upon  its  breast ! 

Scrooge  fell  upon  his  knees,  and  clasped  his  hands  before 
his  face. 

"  Mercy  !  "  he  said.  "  Dreadful  apparition,  why  do  you 
trouble  me  ? " 

"  Man  of  the  worldly  mind  ! "  replied  the  Ghost,  "  do  you 
believe  in  me  or  not  ?  " 

"  I  do,"  said  Scrooge.  "  I  must.  But  why  do  spirits 
walk  the  earth,  and  why  do  they  come  to  me  ?  " 

"  It  is  required  of  every  man,"  the  Ghost  returned,  "  that 
the  spirit  within  him  should  walk  abroad  among  his  fellow- 
men,  and  travel  far  and  wide  ;  and,  if  that  spirit  goes  not 
forth  in  life,  it  is  condemned  to  do  so  after  death.  It  is 
doomed  to  wander  through  the  world,  —  oh,  woe  is  me  !  — 
and  witness  what  it  cannot  share,  but  might  have  shared 
on  earth,  and  turned  to  happiness  !  " 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  29 

Again  the  spectre  raised  a  cry,  and  shook  its  chain  and 
wrung  its  shadowy  hands. 

"  You  are  fettered,"  said  Scrooge,  trembling.  "  Tell  me 
why." 

"  I  wear  the  chain  I  forged  in  life,"  replied  the  Ghost. 
"  I  made  it  link  by  link,  and  yard  by  yard  ;  I  girded  it  on 
of  my  own  free  will,  and  of  my  own  free  will  I  wore  it.  Is 
its  pattern  strange  to  you  ?  " 

Scrooge  trembled  more  and  more. 

"  Or  would  you  know,"  pursued  the  Ghost,  "  the  weight 
and  length  of  the  strong  coil  you  bear  yourself?  It  was 
full  as  heavy  and  as  long  as  this,  seven  Christmas  Eves  ago. 
You  have  labored  on  it  since.     It  is  a  ponderous  chain  ! " 

Scrooge  glanced  about  him  on  the  floor  in  the  expecta- 
tion of  finding  himself  surrounded  by  some  fifty  or  sixty 
fathoms  of  iron  cable  ;  but  he  could  see  nothing. 

"  Jacob,"  he  said  imploringly.  "  Old  Jacob  Marley,  tell 
me  more.     Speak  comfort  to  me,  Jacob  !  " 

"  I  have  none  to  give,"  the  Ghost  replied.  "  It  comes 
from  other  regions,  Ebenezer  Scrooge,  and  is  conveyed 
by  other  ministers  to  other  kinds  of  men.  Nor  can  I  tell 
you  what  I  would.  A  very  little  more  is  all  permitted  to 
me.  I  cannot  rest,  I  cannot  stay,  I  cannot  linger  any- 
where. My  spirit  never  walked  beyond  our  counting-house 
—  mark  me !  —  in  life,  my  spirit  never  roved  beyond  the 
narrow  limits  of  our  money-changing  hole  ;  and  weary  jour- 
neys lie  before  me  ! " 

It  was  a  habit  with  Scrooge,  whenever  he  became 
thoughtful,  to  put  his  hands  in  his  breeches'  pockets. 
Pondering  on  what  the  Ghost  had  said,  he  did  so  now, 
but  without  lifting  up  his  eyes,  or  getting  off  his  knees. 

"  You  must  have  been  very  slow  about  it,  Jacob,"  Scrooge 


3<D  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

observed,  in  a  business-like  manner,  though  with  humility 
and  deference. 

"  Slow  !  "  the  Ghost  repeated. 

"  Seven  years  dead,"  mused  Scrooge.  "  And  travelling 
all  the  time  ?  " 

"  The  whole  time,"  said  the  Ghost.  "  No  rest,  no  peace. 
Incessant  torture  of  remorse." 

"  You  travel  fast  ?  "  said  Scrooge. 

"  On  the  wings  of  the  wind,"  replied  the  Ghost. 

"  You  might  have  got  over  a  great  quantity  of  ground  in 
seven  years,"  said  Scrooge. 

The  Ghost,  on  hearing  this,  set  up  another  cry,  and 
clanked  its  chain  so  hideously,  in  the  dead  silence  of  the 
night,  that  the  Ward  would  have  been  justified  in  indicting 
it  for  a  nuisance. 

"  O  captive,  bound  and  double-ironed,"  cried  the  phan- 
tom, "not  to  know  that  ages  of  incessant  labor,  by  immor- 
tal creatures,  for  this  earth  must  pass  into  eternity  before 
the  good  of  which  it  is  susceptible  is  all  developed.  Not  to 
know  that  any  Christian  spirit  working  kindly  in  its  little 
sphere,  whatever  it  may  be,  will  find  its  mortal  life  too 
short  for  its  vast  means  of  usefulness.  Not  to  know  that 
no  space  of  regret  can  make  amends  for  one  life's  oppor- 
tunities misused  !     Yet  such  was  I  !     O,  such  was  I !  " 

"  But  you  were  always  a  good  man  of  business,  Jacob," 
faltered  Scrooge,  who  now  began  to  apply  this  to  himself. 

"  Business !  "  cried  the  Ghost,  wringing  its  hands  again. 
"  Mankind  was  my  business.  The  common  welfare  was  my 
business  ;  charity,  mercy,  forbearance,  and  benevolence 
were,  all,  my  business.  The  dealings  of  my  trade  were 
but  a  drop  of  water  in  the  comprehensive  ocean  of  my 
business  ! " 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  3 1 

It  held  up  its  chain  at  arm's  length,  as  if  that  were  the 
cause  of  all  its  unavailing  grief,  and  flung  it  heavily  upon 
the  ground  again. 

"  At  this  time  of  the  rolling  year,"  the  spectre  said,  "  I 
suffer  most.  Why  did  I  walk  through  crowds  of  fellow- 
beings  with  my  eyes  turned  down,  and  never  raise  them  to 
that  blessed  Star  which  led  the  Wise  Men  to  a  poor  abode ! 
Were  there  no  poor  homes  to  which  its  light  would  have 
conducted  me  !  " 

Scrooge  was  very  much  dismayed  to  hear  the  spectre 
going  on  at  this  rate,  and  began  to  quake  exceedingly. 

"  Hear  me ! "  cried  the  Ghost.  "  My  time  is  nearly 
gone." 

"  I  will,"  said  Scrooge.  "  But  don't  be  hard  upon  me ! 
Don't  be  flowery,  Jacob  !     Pray  ! " 

"  How  it  is  that  I  appear  before  you  in  a  shape  that  you 
can  see,  I  may  not  tell.  I  have  sat  invisible  beside  you 
many  and  many  a  day." 

It  was  not  an  agreeable  idea.  Scrooge  shivered,  and 
wiped  the  perspiration  from  his  brow. 

"That  is  no  light  part  of  my  penance,"  pursued  the 
Ghost.  "  I  am  here  to-night  to  warn  you  that  you  have 
yet  a  chance  and  hope  of  escaping  my  fate.  A  chance  and 
hope  of  my  procuring,  Ebenezer." 

"  You  were  always  a  good  friend  to  me,"  said  Scrooge. 
"  Thank'ee ! " 

"  You  will  be  haunted,"  resumed  the  Ghost,  «  by  Three 
Spirits." 

Scrooge's  countenance  fell  almost  as  low  as  the  Ghost's 
had  done. 

"  Is  that  the  chance  and  hope  you  mentioned,  Jacob  ? " 
he  demanded,  in  a  faltering  voice. 


32  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

"  It  is." 

"I  —  I  think  I  'd  rather  not,"  said  Scrooge. 

"  Without  their  visits,"  said  the  Ghost,  "  you  cannot  hope 
to  shun  the  path  I  tread.  Expect  the  first  to-morrow, 
when  the  bell  tolls  One." 

"  Could  n't  I  take  'em  all  at  once,  and  have  it  over, 
Jacob  ?  "  hinted  Scrooge. 

"  Expect  the  second  on  the  next  night  at  the  same  hour. 
The  third,  upon  the  next  night,  when  the  last  stroke  of 
Twelve  has  ceased  to  vibrate.  Look  to  see  me  no  more  ; 
and  look  that,  for  your  own  sake,  you  remember  what  has 
passed  between  us !  " 

When  it  had  said  these  words,  the  spectre  took  its  wrap- 
per from  the  table,  and  bound  it  round  its  head,  as  before. 
Scrooge  knew  this  by  the  smart  sound  its  teeth  made,  when 
the  jaws  were  brought  together  by  the  bandage.  He 
ventured  to  raise  his  eyes  again,  and  found  his  supernatural 
visitor  confronting  him  in  an  erect  attitude,  with  its  chain 
wound  over  and  about  its  arm. 

The  apparition  walked  backwards  from  him  ;  and,  at 
every  step  it  took,  the  window  raised  itself  a  little,  so  that, 
when  the  spectre  reached  it,  it  was  wide  open.  It  beckoned 
Scrooge  to  approach,  which  he  did.  When  they  were 
within  two  paces  of  each  other,  Marley's  Ghost  held 
up  its  hand,  warning  him  to  come  no  nearer.  Scrooge 
stopped. 

Not  so  much  in  obedience  as  in  surprise  and  fear  ;  for, 
on  the  raising  of  the  hand,  he  became  sensible  of  confused 
noises  in  the  air,  incoherent  sounds  of  lamentation  and 
regret,  wailings  inexpressibly  sorrowful  and  self-accusatory. 
The  spectre,  after  listening  for  a  moment,  joined  the  mourn- 
ful dirge  ;  and  floated  out  upon  the  bleak,  dark  night. 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  33 

Scrooge  followed  to  the  window,  desperate  in  his  curi- 
osity.    He  looked  out. 

The  air  was  filled  with  phantoms,  wandering  hither  and 
thither  in  restless  haste,  and  moaning  as  they  went.  Every 
one  of  them  wore  chains  like  Marley's  Ghost ;  some  few 
(they  might  be  guilty  governments)  were  linked  together ; 
none  were  free.  Many  had  been  personally  known  to 
Scrooge  in  their  lives.  He  had  been  quite  familiar  with  one 
old  ghost,  in  a  white  waistcoat,  with  a  monstrous  iron  safe 
attached  to  its  ankle,  who  cried  piteously  at  being  unable 
to  assist  a  wretched  woman  with  an  infant,  whom  it  saw 
below  upon  a  doorstep.  The  misery  with  them  all  was, 
clearly,  that  they  sought  to  interfere,  for  good,  in  human 
matters,  and  had  lost  the  power  forever. 

Whether  these  creatures  faded  into  mist,  or  mist  en- 
shrouded them,  he  could  not  tell.  But  they  and  their 
spirit  voices  faded  together ;  and  the  night  became  as  it 
had  been  when  he  walked  home- 

Scrooge  closed  the  window,  and  examined  the  door  by 
which  the  Ghost  had  entered.  It  was  double-locked  as  he 
had  locked  it  with  his  own  hands,  and  the  bolts  were  undis- 
turbed. He  tried  to  say  "  Humbug  ! "  but  stopped  at  the 
first  syllable.  And  being,  from  the  emotion  he  had  under- 
gone, or  the  fatigues  of  the  day,  or  his  glimpse  of  the  In- 
visible World,  or  the  dull  conversation  of  the  Ghost,  or 
the  lateness  of  the  hour,  much  in  need  of  repose,  went 
straight  to  bed,  without  undressing,  and  fell  asleep  upon 
the  instant. 


THE    FIRST   OF   THE   THREE   SPIRITS. 

HEN  Scrooge  awoke,  it  was  so  dark,  that, 
looking  out  of  bed,  he  could  scarcely  dis- 
tinguish the  transparent  window  from  the  opaque  walls  of 
his  chamber.  He  was  endeavoring  to  pierce  the  darkness 
with  his  ferret  eyes,  when  the  chimes  of  a  neighboring 
church  struck  the  four  quarters.  So  he  listened  for  this 
hour. 

To  his  great  astonishment,  the  heavy  bell  went  on  from 
six  to  seven,  and  from  seven  to  eight,  and  regularly  up  to 
twelve  ;  then  stopped.  Twelve  !  It  was  past  two  when  he 
went  to  bed.  The  clock  was  wrong.  An  icicle  must  have 
got  into  the  works.     Twelve  ! 

He  touched  the  spring  of  his  repeater,  to  correct  this 
most  preposterous  clock.  Its  rapid  little  pulse  beat  twelve, 
and  stopped. 

"  Why,  it  is  n't  possible,"  said  Scrooge,  "  that  I  can  have 
slept  through  a  whole  day,  and  far  into  another  night.  It 
is  n't  possible  that  anything  has  happened  to  the  sun,  and 
this  is  twelve  at  noon  !  " 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  35 

The  idea  being  an  alarming  one,  he  scrambled  out  of  bed, 
and  groped  his  way  to  the  window.  He  was  obliged  to  rub 
the  frost  off  with  the  sleeve  of  his  dressing-gown  before  he 
could  see  anything,  and  could  see  very  little  then.  All  he 
could  make  out  was,  that  it  was  still  very  foggy  and  ex- 
tremely cold,  and  that  there  was  no  noise  of  people  running 
to  and  fro,  and  making  a  great  stir,  as  there  unquestionably 
would  have  been  if  night  had  beaten  off  bright  day,  and 
taken  possession  of  the  world.  This  was  a  great  relief, 
because  "  Three  days  after  sight  of  this  First  of  Exchange, 
pay  to  Mr.  Ebenezer  Scrooge  or  his  order,"  and  so  forth, 
would  have  become  a  mere  United-States  security  if  there 
were  no  days  to  count  by. 

Scrooge  went  to  bed  again,  and  thought,  and  thought, 
and  thought  it  over  and  over,  and  could  make  nothing  of  it. 
The  more  he  thought,  the  more  perplexed  he  was  ;  and  the 
more  he  endeavored  not  to  think,  the  more  he  thought. 

Marley's  Ghost  bothered  him  exceedingly.  Every  time 
he  resolved  within  himself,  after  mature  inquiry,  that  it  was 
all  a  dream,  his  mind  flew  back  again,  like  a  strong  spring 
released,  to  its  first  position,  and  presented  the  same  prob- 
lem to  be  worked  all  through,  "  Was  it  a  dream  or  not  ?  " 

Scrooge  lay  in  this  state  until  the  chime  had  gone  three 
quarters  more,  when  he  remembered,  on  a  sudden,  that  the 
Ghost  had  warned  him  of  a  visitation  when  the  bell  tolled 
one.  He  resolved  to  lie  awake  until  the  hour  was  passed  ; 
and,  considering  that  he  could  no  more  go  to  sleep  than  go 
to  Heaven,  this  was  perhaps  the  wisest  resolution  in  his 
power. 

The  quarter  was  so  long,  that  he  was  more  than  once 
convinced  he  must  have  sunk  into  a  doze  unconscious- 
ly, and  missed  the  clock.  At  length  it  broke  upon  his 
listening  ear. 


36  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

"  Ding,  dong  ! " 

"  A  quarter  past,"  said  Scrooge,  counting. 

"  Ding,  dong  !  " 

"  Half  past !  "  said  Scrooge. 

■  Ding,  dong  !  " 

"  A  quarter  to  it,"  said  Scrooge. 

"  Ding,  dong  !  " 

"  The  hour  itself,"  said  Scrooge,  triumphantly,  "  and 
nothing  else !  " 

He  spoke  before  the  hour-bell  sounded,  which  it  now  did 
with  a  deep,  dull,  hollow,  melancholy  One.  Light  flashed 
up  in  the  room  upon  the  instant,  and  the  curtains  of  his  bed 
were  drawn. 

The  curtains  of  his  bed  were  drawn  aside,  I  tell  you,  by 
a  hand.  Not  the  curtains  at  his  feet,  nor  the  curtains  at 
his  back,  but  those  to  which  his  face  was  addressed.  The 
curtains  of  his  bed  were  drawn  aside  ;  and  Scrooge,  start- 
ing up  into  a  half-recumbent  attitude,  found  himself  face 
to  face  with  the  unearthly  visitor  who  drew  them  ;  as  close 
to  it  as  I  am  now  to  you,  and  I  am  standing  in  the  spirit  at 
your  elbow. 

It  was  a  strange  figure,  —  like  a  child  ;  yet  not  so  like  a 
child  as  like  an  old  man,  viewed  through  some  supernatural 
medium,  which  gave  him  the  appearance  of  having  receded 
from  the  view,  and  being  diminished  to  a  child's  propor- 
tions. Its  hair,  which  hung  about  its  neck  and  down  its 
back,  was  white,  as  if  with  age  ;  and  yet  the  face  had  not 
a  wrinkle  in  it,  and  the  tenderest  bloom  was  on  the  skin. 
The  arms  were  very  long  and  muscular ;  the  hands  the 
same,  as  if  its  hold  were  of  uncommon  strength.  Its  legs 
and  feet,  most  delicately  formed,  were,  like  those  upper 
members,  bare.     It  wore  a  tunic  of  the  purest  white  ;  and 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  37 

round  its  waist  was  bound  a  lustrous  belt,  the  sheen  of 
which  was  beautiful.  It  held  a  branch  of  fresh  green  holly 
in  its  hand ;  and,  in  singular  contradiction  of  that  wintry 
emblem,  had  its  dress  trimmed  with  summer  flowers.  But 
the  strangest  thing  about  it  was,  that  from  the  crown  of  its 
head  there  sprung  a  bright  clear  jet  of  light,  by  which  all 
this  was  visible  ;  and  which  was  doubtless  the  occasion  of 
its  using,  in  its  duller  moments,  a  great  extinguisher  for  a 
cap,  which  it  now  held  under  its  arm. 

Even  this,  though,  when  Scrooge  looked  at  it  with  in- 
creasing steadiness,  was  not  its  strangest  quality.  For  as 
its  belt  sparkled  and  glittered  now  in  one  part  and  now  in 
another,  and  what  was  light  one  instant  at  another  time 
was  dark,  so  the  figure  itself  fluctuated  in  its  distinctness ; 
being  now  a  thing  with  one  arm,  now  with  one  leg,  now 
with  twenty  legs,  now  a  pair  of  legs  without  a  head,  now  a 
head  without  a  body  ;  of  which  dissolving  parts  no  outline 
would  be  visible  in  the  dense  gloom  wherein  they  melted 
away.  And,  in  the  very  wonder  of  this,  it  would  be  itself 
again,  distinct  and  clear  as  ever. 

"  Are  you  the  Spirit,  sir,  whose  coming  was  foretold  to 
me  ? "  asked  Scrooge. 

"lam!  " 

The  voice  was  soft  and  gentle.  Singularly  low,  as  if, 
instead  of  being  so  close  beside  him,  it  were  at  a  distance. 

w  Who  and  what  are  you  ? "  Scrooge  demanded. 

"  I  am  the  Ghost  of  Christmas  Past." 

"  Long  Past  ?  "  inquired  Scrooge  ;  observant  of  its  dwarf- 
ish stature. 

"  No.     Your  past." 

Perhaps  Scrooge  could  not  have  told  anybody  why, 
if  anybody  could   have  asked  him,  but  he  had   a   special 


38  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

desire  to  see  the  spirit  in  his  cap,  and  begged  him  to  be 
covered. 

"  What !  "  exclaimed  the  Ghost,  "  would  you  so  soon  put 
out,  with  worldly  hands,  the  light  I  give  ?  Is  it  not  enough 
that  you  are  one  of  those  whose  passions  made  this  cap, 
and  force  me,  through  whole  trains  of  years,  to  wear  it  low 
upon  my  brow  ? " 

Scrooge  reverently  disclaimed  all  intention  to  offend,  or 
any  knowledge  of  having  wilfully  "  bonneted "  the  Spirit 
at  any  period  of  his  life.  He  then  made  bold  to  inquire 
what  business  brought  him  there. 

"  Your  welfare  !  "  said  the  Ghost. 

Scrooge  expressed  himself  much  obliged,  but  could  not 
help  thinking  that  a  night  of  unbroken  rest  would  have 
been  more  conducive  to  that  end.  The  Spirit  must  have 
heard  him  thinking,  for  it  said  immediately,  — 

"  Your  reclamation,  then.     Take  heed  !  " 

It  put  out  its  strong  hand  as  it  spoke,  and  clasped  him 
gently  by  the  arm. 

"  Rise  !  and  walk  with  me  ! " 

It  would  have  been  in  vain  for  Scrooge  to  plead  that  the 
weather  and  the  hour  were  not  adapted  to  pedestrian  pur- 
poses ;  that  bed  was  warm,  and  the  thermometer  a  long 
way  below  freezing;  that  he  was  clad  but  lightly  in  his 
slippers,  dressing-gown,  and  nightcap  ;  and  that  he  had  a 
cold  upon  him  at  that  time.  The  grasp,  though  gentle  as 
a  woman's  hand,  was  not  to  be  resisted.  He  rose  ;  but, 
finding  that  the  spirit  made  towards  the  window,  clasped 
its  robe  in  supplication. 

"  I  am  a  mortal,"  Scrooge  remonstrated,  "  and  liable  to 
fall." 

"Bear  but  a  touch  of  my  hand  there"  said  the  Spirit, 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  39 

laying  it  upon  his  heart,  "  and  you  shall  be  upheld  in  more 
than  this  !  " 

As  the  words  were  spoken,  they  passed  through  the  wall, 
and  stood  upon  an  open  country  road,  with  fields  on  either 
hand.  The  city  had  entirely  vanished.  Not  a  vestige  of  it 
was  to  be  seen.  The  darkness  and  the  mist  had  vanished 
with  it ;  for  it  was  a  clear,  cold,  winter  day,  with  snow  upon 
the  ground. 

"  Good  Heaven  !  "  said  Scrooge,  clasping  his  hands  to- 
gether, as  he  looked  about  him.  "  I  was  bred  in  this  place. 
I  was  a  boy  here  ! " 

The  Spirit  gazed  upon  him  mildly.  Its  gentle  touch, 
though  it  had  been  light  and  instantaneous,  appeared  still 
present  to  the  old  man's  sense  of  feeling.  He  was  con- 
scious of  a  thousand  odors  floating  in  the  air,  each  one  con- 
nected with  a  thousand  thoughts  and  hopes  and  joys  and 
cares  long,  long  forgotten  ! 

"  Your  lip  is  trembling,"  said  the  Ghost.  "  And  what  is 
that  upon  your  cheek  ? " 

Scrooge  muttered,  with  an  unusual  catching  in  his  voice, 
that  it  was  a  pimple  ;  and  begged  the  Ghost  to  lead  him 
where  he  would. 

"  You  recollect  the  way  ? "  inquired  the  Spirit. 

"Remember  it!"  cried  Scrooge,  with  fervor;  "I  could 
walk  it  blindfold." 

"  Strange  to  have  forgotten  it  for  so  many  years  ! "  ob- 
served the  Ghost.     "  Let  us  go  on." 

They  walked  along  the  road.  Scrooge  recognized  every 
gate  and  post  and  tree  ;  until  a  little  market-town  appeared 
in  the  distance,  with  its  bridge,  its  church,  and  winding 
river.  Some  shaggy  ponies  now  were  seen  trotting  to- 
wards them  with  boys  upon  their  backs,  who  called  to  other 


40  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

boys  in  country  gigs  and  carts  driven  by  farmers.  All 
these  boys  were  in  great  spirits,  and  shouted  to  each  other, 
until  the  broad  fields  were  so  full  of  merry  music,  that  the 
crisp  air  laughed  to  hear  it. 

"  These  are  but  shadows  of  the  things  that  have  been," 
said  the  Ghost.     "  They  have  no  consciousness  of  us." 

The  jocund  travellers  came  on ;  and  as  they  came, 
Scrooge  knew  and  named  them  every  one.  Why  was  he 
rejoiced  beyond  all  bounds  to  see  them  ?  Why  did  his  cold 
eye  glisten,  and  his  heart  leap  up  as  they  went  past  ?  Why 
was  he  filled  with  gladness  when  he  heard  them  give  each 
other  Merry  Christmas,  as  they  parted  at  cross-roads  and 
by-ways,  for  their  several  homes  ?  What  was  merry  Christ- 
mas to  Scrooge  ?  Out  upon  merry  Christmas  !  What  good 
had  it  ever  done  to  him  ? 

"  The  school  is  not  quite  deserted,"  said  the  Ghost.  "  A 
solitary  child,  neglected  by  his  friends,  is  left  there  still." 

Scrooge  said  he  knew  it.     And  he  sobbed. 

They  left  the  high-road,  by  a  well-remembered  lane,  and 
soon  approached  a  mansion  of  dull  red  brick,  with  a  little 
weathercock-surmounted  cupola  on  the  roof,  and  a  bell 
hanging  in  it.  It  was  a  large  house,  but  one  of  broken  for- 
tunes ;  for  the  spacious  offices  were  little  used,  their  walls 
were  damp  and  mossy,  their  windows  broken,  and  their 
gates  decayed.  Fowls  clucked  and  strutted  in  the  stables  ; 
and  the  coach-houses  and  sheds  were  overrun  with  grass. 
Nor  was  it  more  retentive  of  its  ancient  state  within  ;  for 
entering  the  dreary  hall,  and  glancing  through  the  open 
doors  of  many  rooms,  they  found  them  poorly  furnished, 
cold,  and  vast.  There  was  an  earthy  savor  in  the  air,  a 
chilly  bareness  in  the  place,  which  associated  itself  some- 
how with  too  much  getting  up  by  candle-light,  and  not  too 
much  to  eat. 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  4 1 

They  went,  the  Ghost  and  Scrooge,  across  the  hall,  to  a 
door  at  the  back  of  the  house.  It  opened  before  them,  and 
disclosed  a  long,  bare,  melancholy  room,  made  barer  still  by 
lines  of  plain  deal  forms  and  desks.  At  one  of  these  a 
lonely  boy  was  reading  near  a  feeble  fire  ;  and  Scrooge  sat 
down  upon  a  form,  and  wept  to  see  his  poor  forgotten  self 
as  he  had  used  to  be. 

Not  a  latent  echo  in  the  house,  not  a  squeak  and  scuffle 
from  the  mice  behind  the  panelling,  not  a  drip  from  the 
half-thawed  water-spout  in  the  dull  yard  behind,  not  a  sigh 
among  the  leafless  boughs  of  one  despondent  poplar,  not 
the  idle  swinging  of  an  empty  storehouse  door,  no,  not  a 
clicking  in  the  fire,  but  fell  upon  the  heart  of  Scrooge  with 
softening  influence,  and  gave  a  freer  passage  to  his  tears. 

The  Spirit  touched  him  on  the  arm,  and  pointed  to  his 
younger  self,  intent  upon  his  reading.  Suddenly  a  man  in 
foreign  garments,  wonderfully  real  and  distinct  to  look  at, 
stood  outside  the  window,  with  an  axe  stuck  in  his  belt,  and 
leading  by  the  bridle  an  ass  laden  with  wood. 

"  Why,  it  's  Ali  Baba  !  "  Scrooge  exclaimed  in  ecstasy. 
"  It  's  dear  old  honest  Ali  Baba !  Yes,  yes,  I  know.  One 
Christmas  time,  when  yonder  solitary  child  was  left  here  all 
alone,  he  did  come,  for  the  first  time,  just  like  that.  Poor 
boy!  And  Valentine,"  said  Scrooge,  "and  his  wild  brother 
Orson  ;  there  they  go  !  And  what  's  his  name,  who  was 
put  down  in  his  drawers,  asleep,  at  the  gate  of  Damascus  ; 
don't  you  see  him  ?  And  the  Sultan's  Groom  turned  up- 
side down  by  the  Genii,  there  he  is  upon  his  head  !  Serve 
him  right.  I  'm  glad  of  it.  What  business  had  he  to  be 
married  to  the  Princess  !  " 

To  hear  Scrooge  expending  all  the  earnestness  of  his 
nature  on  such  subjects,  in  a  most  extraordinary  voice  be- 


42  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

tween  laughing  and  crying,  and  to  see  his  heightened  and 
excited  face,  would  have  been  a  surprise  to  his  business 
friends  in  the  city,  indeed. 

"  There  's  the  Parrot ! "  cried  Scrooge.  "  Green  body 
and  yellow  tail,  with  a  thing  like  a  lettuce  growing  out  of 
the  top  of  his  head  :  there  he  is  !  Poor  Robin  Crusoe, 
he  called  him,  when  he  came  home  again  after  sailing  round 
the  island.  '  Poor  Robin  Crusoe,  where  have  you  been, 
Robin  Crusoe  ? '  The  man  thought  he  was  dreaming,  but 
he  was  n't.  It  was  the  Parrot,  you  know.  There  goes 
Friday,  running  for  his  life  to  the  little  creek !  Halloa  ! 
Hoop!     Halloo!" 

Then,  with  a  rapidity  of  transition  very  foreign  to  his 
usual  character,  he  said,  in  pity  for  his  former  self,  "  Poor 
boy  ! "  and  cried  again. 

"  I  wish,"  Scrooge  muttered,  putting  his  hand  in  his 
pocket,  and  looking  about  him,  after  drying  his  eyes  with 
his  cuff:  "  but  it 's  too  late  now." 

"  What  is  the  matter  ? "  asked  the  Spirit. 

"  Nothing,"  said  Scrooge,  —  "  nothing.  There  was  a  boy 
singing  a  Christmas  Carol  at  my  door  last  night.  I  should 
like  to  have  given  him  something,  that  's  all." 

The  Ghost  smiled  thoughtfully,  and  waved  its  hand,  say- 
ing, as  it  did  so,  "  Let  us  see  another  Christmas  ! " 

Scrooge's  former  self  grew  larger  at  the  words,  and  the 
room  became  a  little  darker  and  more  dirty.  The  panels 
shrunk,  the  windows  cracked,  fragments  of  plaster  fell  out 
of  the  ceiling,  and  the  naked  laths  were  shown  instead  ;  but 
how  all  this  was  brought  about,  Scrooge  knew  no  more  than 
you  do.  He  only  knew  that  it  was  quite  correct,  that 
everything  had  happened  so,  that  there  he  was  alone  again, 
when  all  the  other  boys  had  gone  home  for  the  jolly  holi- 
days. 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  43 

He  was  not  reading  now,  but  walking  up  and  down 
despairingly.  Scrooge  looked  at  the  Ghost,  and,  with  a 
mournful  shaking  of  his  head,  glanced  anxiously  towards 
the  door. 

It  opened,  and  a  little  girl,  much  younger  than  the  boy, 
came  darting  in,  and  putting  her  arms  about  his  neck,  and 
often  kissing  him,  addressed  him  as  her  "  Dear,  dear 
brother." 

"  I  have  come  to  bring  you  home,  dear  brother  ! "  said 
the  child,  clapping  her  tiny  hands,  and  bending  down  to 
laugh.     "  To  bring  you  home,  home,  home  ! " 

"  Home,  little  Fan  ?  "  returned  the  boy. 

"  Yes  ! "  said  the  child,  brimful  of  glee.  "  Home,  for 
good  and  all.  Home,  for  ever  and  ever.  Father  is  so  much 
kinder  than  he  used  to  be,  that  home  's  like  Heaven !  He 
spoke  so  gently  to  me  one  dear  night,  when  I  was  going  to 
bed,  that  I  was  not  afraid  to  ask  him  once  more  if  you 
might  come  home  ;  and  he  said,  Yes,  you  should,  and  sent 
me  in  a  coach  to  bring  you.  And  you  're  to  be  a  man  !  " 
said  the  child,  opening  her  eyes;  "and  are  never  to  come 
back  here  ;  but  first,  we  're  to  be  together  all  the  Christmas 
long,  and  have  the  merriest  time  in  all  the  world." 

"  You  are  quite  a  woman,  little  Fan ! "  exclaimed  the 
boy. 

She  clapped  her  hands,  and  laughed,  and  tried  to  touch 
his  head  ;  but,  being  too  little,  laughed  again,  and  stood  on 
tiptoe  to  embrace  him.  Then  she  began  to  drag  him,  in 
her  childish  eagerness,  towards  the  door ;  and  he,  nothing 
loath  to  go,  accompanied  her. 

A  terrible  voice  in  the  hall  cried,  "  Bring  down  Master 
Scrooge's  box,  there  !  "  and  in  the  hall  appeared  the  school- 
master himself,  who  glared  on  Master  Scrooge  with  a  fero- 


44  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

cious  condescension,  and  threw  him  into  a  dreadful  state  of 
mind  by  shaking  hands  with  him.  He  then  conveyed  him 
and  his  sister  into  the  veriest  old  well  of  a  shivering  best 
parlor  that  ever  was  seen,  where  the  maps  upon  the  wall, 
and  the  celestial  and  terrestrial  globes  in  the  windows,  were 
waxy  with  cold.  Here  he  produced  a  decanter  of  curiously 
light  wine,  and  a  block  of  curiously  heavy  cake,  and  admin- 
istered instalments  of  those  dainties  to  the  young  people  ; 
at  the  same  time,  sending  out  a  meagre  servant  to  offer  a 
glass  of  "  something  "  to  the  post-boy,  who  answered  that 
he  thanked  the  gentleman,  but  if  it  was  the  same  tap  as  he 
had  tasted  before,  he  had  rather  not.  Master  Scrooge's 
trunk  being  by  this  time  tied  on  to  the  top  of  the  chaise, 
the  children  bade  the  schoolmaster  good  by  right  willingly ; 
and,  getting  into  it,  drove  gayly  down  the  garden  sweep  ; 
the  quick  wheels  dashing  the  hoar  frost  and  snow  from  off 
the  dark  leaves  of  the  evergreens  like  spray. 

"  Always  a  delicate  creature,  whom  a  breath  might  have 
withered,"  said  the  Ghost.     "  But  she  had  a  large  heart !  " 

"  So  she  had,"  cried  Scrooge.  "  You  're  right.  I  will 
not  gainsay  it,  Spirit.     God  forbid  !  " 

"  She  died  a  woman,"  said  the  Ghost,  "  and  had,  as  I 
think,  children." 

"  One  child,"  Scrooge  returned. 

"  True,"  said  the  Ghost.     "  Your  nephew ! " 

Scrooge  seemed  uneasy  in  his  mind ;  and  answered 
briefly,  "Yes." 

Although  they  had  but  that  moment  left  the  school  be- 
hind them,  they  were  now  in  the  busy  thoroughfares  of  a 
city  where  shadowy  passengers  passed  and  repassed  ;  where 
shadowy  carts  and  coaches  battled  for  the  way,  and  all  the 
strife  and  tumult  of  a  real  city  were.     It  was  made  plain 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  45 

enough,  by  the  dressing  of  the  shops,  that  here,  too,  it  was 
Christmas  time  again  ;  but  it  was  evening,  and  the  streets 
were  lighted  up. 

The  Ghost  stopped  at  a  certain  warehouse  door,  and 
asked  Scrooge  if  he  knew  it. 

"  Know  it !  "  said  Scrooge.     "  Was  I  apprenticed  here  !  " 

They  went  in.  At  sight  of  an  old  gentleman  in  a  Welsh 
wig,  sitting  behind  such  a  high  desk  that  if  he  had  been 
two  inches  taller  he  must  have  knocked  his  head  against 
the  ceiling,  Scrooge  cried  in  great  excitement,  — 

"  Why,  it  is  old  Fezziwig  !  Bless  his  heart ;  it 's  Fezzi- 
wig  alive  again  !  " 

Old  Fezziwig  laid  down  his  pen,  and  looked  up  at  the 
clock,  which  pointed  to  the  hour  of  seven.  He  rubbed  his 
hands  ;  adjusted  his  capacious  waistcoat ;  laughed  all  over 
himself,  from  his  shoes  to  his  organ  of  benevolence  ;  and 
called  out,  in  a  comfortable,  oily,  rich,  fat,  jovial  voice,  — 

"  Yo  ho,  there  !     Ebenezer  !     Dick !  " 

Scrooge's  former  self,  now  grown  a  young  man,  came 
briskly  in,  accompanied  by  his  fellow-'prentice. 

"  Dick  Wilkins,  to  be  sure  ! "  said  Scrooge  to  the  Ghost. 
"Bless  me,  yes.  vThere  he  is.  He  was  very  much  at- 
tached to  me,  was  Dick.     Poor  Dick  !     Dear,  dear ! " 

"  Yo  ho,  my  boys ! "  said  Fezziwig.  "  No  more  work 
to-night.  Christmas  Eve,  Dick.  Christmas,  Ebenezer ! 
Let 's  have  the  shutters  up,"  cried  old  Fezziwig,  with  a 
sharp  clap  of  his  hands,  "before  a  man  can  say  Jack 
Robinson  ! " 

You  would  n't  believe  how  those  two  fellows  went  at  it ! 
They  charged  into  the  street  with  the  shutters,  —  one,  two, 
three,  —  had  'em  up  in  their  places,  —  four,  five,  six,  — 
barred    'em    and   pinned   'em,  —  seven,  eight,   nine,  —  and 


46  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

came  back  before  you  could  have  got  to  twelve,  panting 
like  race-horses. 

"  Hilli-ho  !  "  cried  old  Fezziwig,  skipping  down  from  the 
high  desk  with  wonderful  agility.  "  Clear  away,  my  lads, 
and  let 's  have  lots  of  room  here  !  Hilli-ho,  Dick  !  Chir- 
rup, Ebenezer  ! " 

Clear  away !  There  was  nothing  they  would  n't  have 
cleared  away,  or  could  n't  have  cleared  away,  with  old 
Fezziwig  looking  on.  It  was  done  in  a  minute.  Every 
movable  was  packed  off,  as  if  it  were  dismissed  from  pub- 
lic life  forevermore  ;  the  floor  was  swept  and  watered,  the 
lamps  were  trimmed,  fuel  was  heaped  upon  the  fire  ;  and 
the  warehouse  was  as  snug  and  warm  and  dry  and  bright 
a  ball-room  as  you  would  desire  to  see  upon  a  winter's 
night. 

In  came  a  fiddler  with  a  music-book,  and  went  up  to  the 
lofty  desk,  and  made  an  orchestra  of  it,  and  tuned  like  fifty 
stomach-aches.  In  came  Mrs.  Fezziwig,  one  vast  substan- 
tial smile.  In  came  the  three  Miss  Fezziwigs,  beaming 
and  lovable.  In  came  the  six  young  followers  whose  hearts 
they  broke.  In  came  all  the  young  men  and  women  em- 
ployed in  the  business.  In  came  the  housemaid,  with  her 
cousin  the  baker.  In  came  the  cook,  with  her  brother's  par- 
ticular friend  the  milkman.  In  came  the  boy  from  over  the 
way,  who  was  suspected  of  not  having  board  enough  from 
his  master,  trying  to  hide  himself  behind  the  girl  from  next 
door  but  one,  who  was  proved  to  have  had  her  ears  pulled 
by  her  mistress.  In  they  all  came,  one  after  another  ;  some 
shyly,  some  boldly,  some  gracefully,  some  awkwardly,  some 
pushing,  some  pulling ;  in  they  all  came,  anyhow  and 
everyhow.  Away  they  all  went,  twenty  couple  at  once  ; 
hands  half  round  and  back  again  the  other  way  ;  down  the 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  47 

middle  and  up  again ;  round  and  round  in  various  stages 
of  affectionate  grouping ;  old  top  couple  always  turning  up 
in  the  wrong  place  ;  new  top  couple  starting  off  again,  as 
soon  as  they  got  there  ;  all  top  couples  at  last,  and  not  a 
bottom  one  to  help  them  !  When  this  result  was  brought 
about,  old  Fezziwig,  clapping  his  hands  to  stop  the  dance, 
cried  out,  "  Well  done ! "  and  the  fiddler  plunged  his  hot 
face  into  a  pot  of  porter,  especially  provided  for  that  pur- 
pose. But,  scorning  rest  upon  his  reappearance,  he  in- 
stantly began  again,  though  there  were  no  dancers  yet,  as 
if  the  other  fiddler  had  been  carried  home,  exhausted,  on  a 
shutter,  and  he  were  a  bran-new  man  resolved  to  beat  him 
out  of  sight,  or  perish. 

There  were  more  dances,  and  there  were  forfeits,  and 
more  dances,  and  there  was  cake,  and  there  was  negus, 
and  there  was  a  great  piece  of  Cold  Roast,  and  there  was 
a  great  piece  of  Cold  Boiled,  and  there  were  mince-pies, 
and  plenty  of  beer.  But  the  great  effect  of  the  evening 
came  after  the  Roast  and  Boiled,  when  the  fiddler  (an  artful 
dog,  mind  !  The  sort  of  man  who  knew  his  business  better 
than  you  or  I  could  have  told  it  him ! )  struck  up  "  Sir 
Roger  de  Coverley."  Then  old  Fezziwig  stood  out  to  dance 
with  Mrs.  Fezziwig.  Top  couple,  too ;  with  a  good  stiff 
piece  of  work  cut  out  for  them  ;  three  or  four  and  twen- 
ty pair  of  partners ;  people  who  were  not  to  be  trifled 
with  ;  people  who  would  dance,  and  had  no  notion  of  walk- 
ing. 

But  if  they  had  been  twice  as  many,  —  ah,  four  times,  — 
old  Fezziwig  would  have  been  a  match  for  them,  and  so 
would  Mrs.  Fezziwig.  As  to  her,  she  was  worthy  to  be  his 
partner  in  every  sense  of  the  term.  If  that  's  not  high 
praise,  tell  me  higher,  and  I  '11  use  it.     A  positive  light 


48  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

appeared  to  issue  from  Fezziwig's  calves.  They  shone  in 
every  part  of  the  dance  like  moons.  You  could  n't  have 
predicted,  at  any  given  time,  what  would  become  of  them 
next.  And  when  old  Fezziwig  and  Mrs.  Fezziwig  had 
gone  all  through  the  dance  ;  advance  and  retire,  both  hands 
to  your  partner,  bow  and  courtesy,  corkscrew,  thread  the 
needle,  and  back  again  to  your  place,  Fezziwig  "  cut,"  — 
cut  so  deftly  that  he  appeared  to  wink  with  his  legs,  and 
came  upon  his  feet  again  without  a  stagger. 

When  the  clock  struck  eleven,  this  domestic  ball  broke 
up.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fezziwig  took  their  stations,  one  on 
either  side  the  door,  and,  shaking  hands  with  every  per- 
son individually  as  he  or  she  went  out,  wished  him  or  her  a 
Merry  Christmas.  When  everybody  had  retired  but  the 
two  'prentices,  they  did  the  same  to  them  ;  and  thus  the 
cheerful  voices  died  away,  and  the  lads  were  left  to  their 
beds,  which  were  under  a  counter  in  the  back  shop. 

During  the  whole  of  this  time,  Scrooge  had  acted  like  a 
man  out  of  his  wits.  His  heart  and  soul  were  in  the  scene, 
and  with  his  former  self.  He  corroborated  everything, 
remembered  everything,  enjoyed  everything,  and  under- 
went the  strangest  agitation.  It  was  not  until  now,  when 
the  bright  faces  of  his  former  self  and  Dick  were  turned 
from  them,  that  he  remembered  the  Ghost,  and  became 
conscious  that  it  was  looking  full  upon  him,  while  the  light 
upon  its  head  burnt  very  clear. 

"  A  small  matter,"  said  the  Ghost,  "  to  make  these  silly 
folks  so  full  of  gratitude." 

"  Small !  "  echoed  Scrooge. 

The  Spirit  signed  to  him  to  listen  to  the  two  apprentices, 
who  were  pouring  out  their  hearts  in  praise  of  Fezziwig  ; 
and  when  he  had  done  so,  said,  — 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  49 

"  Why  !  Is  it  not  ?  He  has  spent  but  a  few  pounds  of 
your  mortal  money,  —  three  or  four,  perhaps.  Is  that  so 
much  that  he  deserves  this  praise  ? " 

"  It  is  n't  that,"  said  Scrooge,  heated  by  the  remark,  and 
speaking  unconsciously  like  his  former,  not  his  latter  self, 
—  "  it  is  n't  that,  Spirit.  He  has  the  power  to  render  us 
happy  or  unhappy ;  to  make  our  service  light  or  burden- 
some, a  pleasure  or  a  toil.  Say  that  his  power  lies  in 
words  and  looks,  in  things  so  slight  and  insignificant  that 
it  is  impossible  to  add  and  count  'em  up,  what  then  ? 
The  happiness  he  gives  is  quite  as  great  as  if  it  cost  a  for- 
tune." 

He  felt  the  Spirit's  glance,  and  stopped. 

"  What  is  the  matter  ?  "  asked  the  Ghost. 

"  Nothing  particular,"  said  Scrooge. 

"  Something,  I  think  ? "  the  Ghost  insisted. 

"  No  !  "  said  Scrooge,  —  "  no.  I  should  like  to  be  able 
to  say  a  word  or  two  to  my  clerk  just  now.     That  's  all." 

His  former  self  turned  down  the  lamps,  as  he  gave  utter- 
ance to  the  wish  ;  and  Scrooge  and  the  Ghost  again  stood 
side  by  side  in  the  open  air. 

"  My  time  grows  short,"  observed  the  Spirit.     "  Quick  !  " 

This  was  not  addressed  to  Scrooge,  or  to  any  one  whom 
he  could  see,  but  it  produced  an  immediate  effect.  For 
again  Scrooge  saw  himself.  He  was  older  now,  a  man  in 
the  prime  of  life.  His  face  had  not  the  harsh  and  rigid 
lines  of  later  years  ;  but  it  had  begun  to  wear  the  signs  of 
care  and  avarice.  There  was  an  eager,  greedy,  restless 
motion  in  the  eye,  which  showed  the  passion  that  had 
taken  root,  and  where  the  shadow  of  the  growing  tree 
would  fall. 

He  was  not  alone,  but  sat  by  the  side  of  a  fair  young 
4 


50  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

girl  in  a  mourning  dress,  in  whose  eyes  there  were  tears, 
which  sparkled  in  the  light  that  shone  out  of  the  Ghost  of 
Christmas  Past. 

"  It  matters  little,"  she  said,  softly.  "  To  you,  very  little. 
Another  idol  has  displaced  me  ;  and  if  it  can  cheer  and 
comfort  you  in  time  to  come,  as  I  would  have  tried  to  do, 
I  have  no  just  cause  to  grieve." 

"What  idol  has  displaced  you? "  he  rejoined. 

"  A  golden  one." 

"  This  is  the  even-handed  dealing  of  the  world  !  "  he  said. 
"  There  is  nothing  on  which  it  is  so  hard  as  poverty  ;  and 
there  is  nothing  it  professes  to  condemn  with  such  se- 
verity as  the  pursuit  of  wealth  ! " 

"You  fear  the  world  too  much,"  she  answered,  gently. 
"All  your  other  hopes  have  merged  into  the  hope  of 
being  beyond  the  chance  of  its  sordid  reproach.  I  have 
seen  your  nobler  aspirations  fall  off  one  by  one,  until  the 
master-passion,  Gain,  engrosses  you.     Have  I  not  ? " 

"  What  then  ? "  he  retorted.  "  Even  if  I  had  grown  so 
much  wiser,  what  then  ?     I  am  not  changed  towards  you." 

She  shook  her  head. 

"Am  I?" 

"  Our  contract  is  an  old  one.  It  was  made  when  we  were 
both  poor,  and  content  to  be  so  until,  in  good  season,  we 
could  improve  our  worldly  fortune  by  our  patient  industry. 
You  are  changed.  When  it  was  made,  you  were  another 
man." 

"  I  was  a  boy,"  he  said,  impatiently. 

"  Your  own  feeling  tells  you  that  you  were  not  what 
you  are,"  she  returned.  "  I  am.  That  which  promised 
happiness  when  we  were  one  in  heart  is  fraught  with 
misery  now  that  we  are  two.     How  often  and  how  keenly 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  5  I 

I  have  thought  of  this,  I  will  not  say.  It  is  enough  that  I 
have  thought  of  it,  and  can  release  you." 

"  Have  I  ever  sought  release  ? " 

"  In  words.     No.     Never." 

"  In  what,  then  ? " 

"  In  a  changed  nature ;  in  an  altered  spirit  ;  in  another 
atmosphere  of  life  ;  another  Hope  as  its  great  end.  In 
everything  that  made  my  love  of  any  worth  or  value  in 
your  sight  If  this  had  never  been  between  us,"  said  the 
girl,  looking  mildly,  but  with  steadiness,  upon  him,  "  tell  me, 
would  you  seek  me  out  and  try  to  win  me  now  ?    Ah,  no  !  " 

He  seemed  to  yield  to  the  justice  of  this  supposition,  in 
spite  of  himself.  But  he  said,  with  a  struggle,  "  You  think 
not." 

"  I  would  gladly  think  otherwise  if  I  could,"  she  an- 
swered, "  Heaven  knows !  When  /  have  learned  a  Truth 
like  this,  I  know  how  strong  and  irresistible  it  must  be. 
But  if  you  were  free  to-day,  to-morrow,  yesterday,  can  even 
I  believe  that  you  would  choose  a  dowerless  girl, — you 
who,  in  your  very  confidence  with  her,  weigh  everything 
by  Gain  ;  or,  choosing  her,  if  for  a  moment  you  were  false 
enough  to  your  one  guiding  principle  to  do  so,  do  I  not 
know  that  your  repentance  and  regret  would  surely  follow  ? 
I  do  ;  and  I  release  you.  With  a  full  heart,  for  the  love 
of  him  you  once  were." 

He  was  about  to  speak  ;  but,  with  her  head  turned  from 
him,  she  resumed  :  — 

"You  may —  the  memory  of  what  is  past  half  makes  me 
hope  you  will  —  have  pain  in  this.  A  very,  very  brief 
time,  and  you  will  dismiss  the  recollection  of  it  gladly,  as 
an  unprofitable  dream,  from  which  it  happened  well  that  you 
awoke.     May  you  be  happy  in  the  life  you  have  chosen  !  " 


52  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

She  left  him,^and  they  parted. 

"  Spirit ! "  said  Scrooge,  "  show  me  no  more  !  Conduct 
me  home.     Why  do  you  delight  to  torture  me  ? " 

"  One  shadow  more  ! "  exclaimed  the  Ghost. 

"  No  more  !  "  cried  Scrooge,  —  "  no  more.  I  don  't  wish 
to  see  it.     Show  me  no  more  !  " 

But  the  relentless  Ghost  pinioned  him  in  both  his  arms, 
and  forced  him  to  observe  what  happened  next. 

They  were  in  another  scene  and  place  ;  a  room,  not  very 
large  or  handsome,  but  full  of  comfort.  Near  to  the  winter 
fire  sat  a  beautiful  young  girl,  so  like  that  last  that  Scrooge 
believed  it  was  the  same,  until  he  saw  her,  now  a  comely 
matron,  sitting  opposite  her  daughter.  The  noise  in  this 
room  was  perfectly  tumultuous,  for  there  were  more  chil- 
dren there  than  Scrooge,  in  his  agitated  state  of  mind, 
could  count ;  and,  unlike  the  celebrated  herd  in  the  poem, 
they  were  not  forty  children  conducting  themselves  like 
one,  but  every  child  was  conducting  itself  like  forty.  The 
consequences  were  uproarious  beyond  belief;  but  no  one 
seemed  to  care  ;  on  the  contrary,  the  mother  and  daughter 
laughed  heartily,  and  enjoyed  it  very  much;  and  the  latter, 
soon  beginning  to  mingle  in  the  sports,  got  pillaged  by  the 
young  brigands  most  ruthlessly.  What  would  I  not  have 
given  to  be  one  of  them  !  Though  I  never  could  have  been 
so  rude,  no,  no  !  I  would  n't  for  the  wealth  of  all  the  world 
have  crushed  that  braided  hair,  and  torn  it  down  ;  and  for 
the  precious  little  shoe,  I  wouldn't  have  plucked  it  off, 
God  bless  my  soul !  to  save  my  life.  As  to  measuring  her 
waist  in  sport,  as  they  did,  bold  young  brood,  I  could  n't 
have  done  it ;  I  should  have  expected  my  arm  to  have 
grown  round  it  for  a  punishment,  and  never  come  straight 
again.     And  yet  I  should  have  dearly  liked,  I  own,  to  have 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  53 

touched  her  lips  ;  to  have  questioned  her,  that  she  might 
have  opened  them  ;  to  have  looked  upon  the  lashes  of  her 
downcast  eyes,  and  never  raised  a  blush  ;  to  have  let  loose 
waves  of  hair,  an  inch  of  which  would  be  a  keepsake  be- 
yond price  ;  in  short,  I  should  have  liked,  I  do  confess,  to 
have  had  the  lightest  license  of  a  child,  and  yet  to  have 
been  man  enough  to  know  its  value. 

But  now  a  knocking  at  the  door  was  heard,  and  such  a 
rush  immediately  ensued,  that  she,  with  laughing  face  and 
plundered  dress,  was  borne  towards  it  in  the  centre  of  a 
flushed  and  boisterous  group,  just  in  time  to  greet  the 
father,  who  came  home  attended  by  a  man  laden  with 
Christmas  toys  and  presents.  Then  the  shouting  and  the 
struggling,  and  the  onslaught  that  was  made  on  the  de- 
fenceless porter  !  The  scaling  him,  with  chairs  for  ladders, 
to  dive  into  his  pockets,  despoil  him  of  brown-paper  par- 
cels, hold  on  tight  by  his  cravat,  hug  him  round  the  neck, 
pommel  his  back,  and  kick  his  legs  in  irrepressible  affec- 
tion !  The  shouts  of  wonder  and  delight  with  which  the 
development  of  every  package  was  received  !  The  terrible 
announcement  that  the  baby  had  been  taken  in  the  act  of 
putting  a  doll's  frying-pan  into  his  mouth,  and  was  more 
than  suspected  of  having  swallowed  a  fictitious  turkey, 
glued  on  a  wooden  platter !  The  immense  relief  of  finding 
this  a  false  alarm  !  The  joy  and  gratitude  and  ecstasy  ! 
They  are  all  indescribable  alike.  It  is  enough  that,  by 
degrees,  the  children  and  their  emotions  got  out  of  the 
parlor,  and,  by  one  stair  at  a  time,  up  to  the  top  of  the 
house,  where  they  went  to  bed,  and  so  subsided. 

And  now  Scrooge  looked  on  more  attentively  than  ever, 
when  the  master  of  the  house,  having  his  daughter  leaning 
fondly  on  him,  sat  down  with  her  and  her  mother  at  his 


54  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

own  fireside ;  and  when  he  thought  that  such  another 
creature,  quite  as  graceful  and  as  full  of  promise,  might 
have  called  him  father,  and  been  a  spring-time  in  the  hag- 
gard winter  of  his  life,  his  sight  grew  very  dim  indeed. 

"Belle,"  said  the  husband,  turning  to  his  wife  with  a 
smile,  "  I  saw  an  old  friend  of  yours  this  afternoon." 

"  Who  was  it  ?  " 

»  Guess ! " 

"  How  can  I  ?  Tut,  don't  I  know  ? "  she  added,  in  the 
same  breath,  laughing  as  he  laughed.     "  Mr.  Scrooge." 

"  Mr.  Scrooge  it  was.  I  passed  his  office  window,  and  as 
it  was  not  shut  up,  and  he  had  a  candle  inside,  I  could 
scarcely  help  seeing  him.  His  partner  lies  upon  the  point 
of  death,  I  hear ;  and  there  he  sat  alone.  Quite  alone  in 
the  world,  I  do  believe." 

"  Spirit !  "  said  Scrooge,  in  a  broken  voice,  "  remove  me 
from  this  place." 

"  I  told  you  these  were  shadows  of  the  things  that  have 
been,"  said  the  Ghost  "  That  they  are  what  they  are,  do 
not  blame  me !  " 

"  Remove  me ! "  Scrooge  exclaimed.  "  I  cannot  bear 
it!" 

He  turned  upon  the  Ghost,  and,  seeing  that  it  looked 
upon  him  with  a  face  in  which  in  some  strange  way  there 
were  fragments  of  all  the  faces  it  had  shown  him,  wrestled 
with  it. 

"  Leave  me !     Take  me  back.     Haunt  me  no  longer ! " 

In  the  struggle,  —  if  that  can  be  called  a  struggle  in 
which  the  Ghost,  with  no  visible  resistance  on  its  own  part, 
was  undisturbed  by  any  effort  of  its  adversary,  —  Scrooge 
observed  that  its  light  was  burning  high  and  bright  ;  and, 
dimly  connecting  that  with  its  influence  over  him,  he  seized 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  55 

the  extinguisher-cap,  and  by  a  sudden  action  pressed  it 
down  upon  its  head. 

The  Spirit  dropped  beneath  it,  so  that  the  extinguisher 
covered  its  whole  form ;  but  though  Scrooge  pressed  it 
down  with  all  his  force,  he  could  not  hide  the  light  which 
streamed  from  under  it  in  an  unbroken  flood  upon  the 
ground. 

He  was  conscious  of  being  exhausted,  and  overcome  by 
an  irresistible  drowsiness,  and,  further,  of  being  in  his  own 
bedroom.  He  gave  the  cap  a  parting  squeeze,  in  which  his 
hand  relaxed,  and  had  barely  time  to  reel  to  bed,  before  he 
sank  into  a  heavy  sleep. 


ggiilli 


STAVE    III. 

THE   SECOND   OF    THE   THREE   SPIRITS. 

^WAKING  in  the  middle  of  a  prodigious- 
ly tough  snore,  and  sitting  up  in  bed  to  get  his  thoughts 
together,  Scrooge  had  no  occasion  to  be  told  that  the  bell 
was  again  upon  the  stroke  of  One.  He  felt  that  he  was 
restored  to  consciousness  in  the  right  nick  of  time,  for  the 
especial  purpose  of  holding  a  conference  with  the  second 
messenger  despatched  to  him  through  Jacob  Marley's  inter- 
vention. But,  finding  that  he  turned  uncomfortably  cold 
when  he  began  to  wonder  which  of  his  curtains  this  new 
spectre  would  draw  back,  he  put  them  every  one  aside  with 
his  own  hands,  and,  lying  down  again,  established  a  sharp 
lookout  all  round  the  bed  ;  for  he  wished  to  challenge  the 
Spirit  on  the  moment  of  its  appearance,  and  did  not  wish 
to  be  taken  by  surprise,  and  made  nervous. 

Gentlemen  of  the  free-and-easy  sort,  who  plume  them- 
selves on  being  acquainted  with  a  move  or  two,  and  being 
usually  equal  to  the  time  of  day,  express  the  wide  range  of 
their  capacity  for  adventure  by  observing  that  they  are 
good  for  anything  from  pitch-and-toss  to  manslaughter ;  be- 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  57 

tween  which  opposite  extremes,  no  doubt,  there  lies  a  toler- 
ably wide  and  comprehensive  range  of  subjects.  Without 
venturing  for  Scrooge  quite  as  hardily  as  this,  I  don't  mind 
calling  on  you  to  believe  that  he  was  ready  for  a  good  broad 
field  of  strange  appearances,  and  that  nothing  between  a 
baby  and  rhinoceros  would  have  astonished  him  very  much. 

Now,  being  prepared  for  almost  anything,  he  was  not  by 
any  means  prepared  for  nothing  ;  and  consequently,  when 
the  Bell  struck  One  and  no  shape  appeared,  he  was  taken 
with  a  violent  fit  of  trembling.  Five  minutes,  ten  minutes, 
a  quarter  of  an  hour  went  by,  yet  nothing  came.  All  this 
time  he  lay  upon  his  bed,  the  very  core  and  centre  of  a 
blaze  of  ruddy  light,  which  streamed  upon  it  when  the 
clock  proclaimed  the  hour  ;  and  which,  being  only  light, 
was  more  alarming  than  a  dozen  ghosts,  as  he  was  power- 
less to  make  out  what  it  meant,  or  would  be  at,  and  was 
sometimes  apprehensive  that  he  might  be  at  that  very 
moment  an  interesting  case  of  spontaneous  combustion, 
without  having  the  consolation  of  knowing  it.  At  last, 
however,  he  began  to  think,  —  as  you  or  I  would  have 
thought  at  first  ;  for  it  is  always  the  person  not  in  the  pre- 
dicament who  knows  what  ought  to  have  been  done  in  it, 
and  would  unquestionably  have  done  it  too,  —  at  last,  I  say, 
he  began  to  think  that  the  source  and  secret  of  this  ghostly 
light  might  be  in  the  adjoining  room,  from  whence,  on 
further  tracing  it,  it  seemed  to  shine.  This  idea  taking  full 
possession  of  his  mind,  he  got  up  softly,  and  shuffled  in  his 
slippers  to  the  door. 

The  moment  Scrooge's  hand  was  on  the  lock,  a  strange 
voice  called  him  by  his  name,  and  bade  him  enter.  He 
obeyed. 

It  was  his  own  room.     There  was  no  doubt  about  that. 


58  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

But  it  had  undergone  a  surprising  transformation.  The 
walls  and  ceiling  were  so  hung  with  living  green,  that  it 
looked  a  perfect  grove,  from  every  part  of  which  bright 
gleaming  berries  glistened.  The  crisp  leaves  of  holly, 
mistletoe,  and  ivy  reflected  back  the  light,  as  if  so  many 
little  mirrors  had  been  scattered  there  ;  and  such  a  mighty 
blaze  went  roaring  up  the  chimney  as  that  dull  petrifaction 
of  a  hearth  had  never  known  in  Scrooge's  time,  or  Marley's, 
or  for  many  and  many  a  winter  season  gone.  Heaped  up 
on  the  floor,  to  form  a  kind  of  throne,  were  turkeys,  geese, 
game,  poultry,  brawn,  great  joints  of  meat,  sucking  pigs, 
long  wreaths  of  sausages,  mince-pies,  plum-puddings,  bar- 
rels of  oysters,  red-hot  chestnuts,  cherry-cheeked  apples, 
juicy  oranges,  luscious  pears,  immense  twelfth-cakes,  and 
seething  bowls  of  punch,  that  made  the  chamber  dim  with 
their  delicious  steam.  In  easy  state  upon  this  couch  there 
sat  a  jolly  Giant,  glorious  to  see  ;  who  bore  a  glowing  torch, 
in  shape  not  unlike  Plenty's  horn,  and  held  it  up,  high  up, 
to  shed  its  light  on  Scrooge,  as  he  came  peeping  round  the 
door. 

"Come  in!"  exclaimed  the  Ghost,  —  "come  in!  and 
know  me  better,  man  !  " 

Scrooge  entered  timidly,  and  hung  his  head  before  this 
Spirit.  He  was  not  the  dogged  Scrooge  he  had  been  ;  and, 
though  the  Spirit's  eyes  were  clear  and  kind,  he  did  not 
like  to  meet  them. 

"  I  am  the  Ghost  of  Christmas  Present,"  said  the  Spirit. 
"  Look  upon  me  !  " 

Scrooge  reverently  did  so.  It  was  clothed  in  one  simple 
deep  green  robe,  or  mantle,  bordered  with  white  fur.  This 
garment  hung  so  loosely  on  the  figure,  that  its  capacious 
breast  was  bare,  as  if  disdaining  to  be  warded  or  concealed 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  59 

by  any  artifice.  Its  feet,  observable  beneath  the  ample  folds 
of  the  garment,  were  also  bare  ;  and  on  its  head  it  wore  no 
other  covering  than  a  holly  wreath,  set  here  and  there  with 
shining  icicles.  Its  dark  brown  curls  were  long  and  free,  — 
free  as  its  genial  face,  its  sparkling  eye,  its  open  hand,  its 
cheery  voice,  its  unconstrained  demeanor,  and  its  joyful  air. 
Girded  round  its  middle  was  an  antique  scabbard  ;  but  no 
sword  was  in  it,  and  the  ancient  sheath  was  eaten  up  with 
rust. 

"  You  have  never  seen  the  like  of  me  before  ! "  exclaimed 
the  Spirit. 

"  Never,"  Scrooge  made  answer  to  it. 

"  Have  never  walked  forth  with  the  younger  members  of 
my  family  ;  meaning  (for  I  am  very  young)  my  elder  broth- 
ers born  in  these  later  years  ? "  pursued  the  Phantom. 

"  I  don't  think  I  have,"  said  Scrooge.  "  I  am  afraid  I 
have  not.     Have  you  had  many  brothers,  Spirit  ?  " 

"  More  than  eighteen  hundred,"  said  the  Ghost. 

"  A  tremendous  family  to  provide  for,"  muttered  Scrooge. 

The  Ghost  of  Christmas  Present  rose. 

"  Spirit,"  said  Scrooge,  submissively,  "  conduct  me  where 
you  will.  I  went  forth  last  night  on  compulsion,  and  I 
learnt  a  lesson  which  is  working  now.  To-night,  if  you  have 
aught  to  teach  me,  let  me  profit  by  it." 

"  Touch  my  robe  !  " 

Scrooge  did  as  he  was  told,  and  held  it  fast. 

Holly,  mistletoe,  red  berries,  ivy,  turkeys,  geese,  game, 
poultry,  brawn,  meat,  pigs,  sausages,  oysters,  pies,  puddings, 
fruit,  and  punch  all  vanished  instantly.  So  did  the  room, 
the  fire,  the  ruddy  glow,  the  hour  of  night,  and  they  stood 
in  the  city  streets  on  Christmas  morning,  where  (for  the 
weather  was  severe)  the  people  made  a  rough  but  brisk,  and 


60  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

not  unpleasant,  kind  of  music  in  scraping  the  snow  from 
the  pavement  in  front  of  their  dwellings,  and  from  the  tops 
of  their  houses,  whence  it  was  mad  delight  to  the  boys  to 
see  it  come  plumping  down  into  the  road  below,  and  split- 
ting into  artificial  little  snow-storms. 

The  house-fronts  looked  black  enough,  and  the  windows 
blacker,  contrasting  with  the  smooth  white  sheet  of  snow 
upon  the  roofs,  and  with  the  dirtier  snow  upon  the  ground ; 
which  last  deposit  had  been  ploughed  up  in  deep  furrows 
by  the  heavy  wheels  of  carts  and  wagons,  —  furrows  that 
crossed  and  recrossed  each  other  hundreds  of  times  where 
the  great  streets  branched  off,  and  made  intricate  channels, 
hard  to  trace,  in  the  thick  yellow  mud  and  icy  water.  The 
sky  was  gloomy,  and  the  shortest  streets  were  choked  up 
with  a  dingy  mist,  half  thawed,  half  frozen,  whose  heavier 
particles  descended  in  a  shower  of  sooty  atoms,  as  if  all  the 
chimneys  in  Great  Britain  had,  by  one  consent,  caught  fire, 
and  were  blazing  away  to  their  dear  hearts'  content.  There 
was  nothing  very  cheerful  in  the  climate  or  the  town,  and 
yet  was  there  an  air  of  cheerfulness  abroad  that  the  clearest 
summer  air  and  brightest  summer  sun  might  have  endeav- 
ored to  diffuse  in  vain. 

For  the  people  who  were  shovelling  away  on  the  house- 
tops were  jovial,  and  full  of  glee  ;  calling  out  to  one  an- 
other from  the  parapets,  and  now  and  then  exchanging  a 
facetious  snowball,  —  better-natured  missile  far  than  many 
a  wordy  jest,  —  laughing  heartily  if  it  went  right,  and  not 
less  heartily  if  it  went  wrong.  The  poulterers'  shops  were 
still  half  open,  and  the  fruiterers'  were  radiant  in  their 
glory.  There  were  great,  round,  pot-bellied  baskets  of 
chestnuts,  shaped  like  the  waistcoats  of  jolly  old  gentle- 
men, lolling  at  the  doors,  and  tumbling  out  into  the  street 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  6 1 

in  their  apoplectic  opulence.  There  were  ruddy,  brown- 
faced,  broad-girthed  Spanish  onions,  shining  in  the  fatness 
of  their  growth  like  Spanish  Friars,  and  winking  from  their 
shelves  in  wanton  slyness  at  the  girls  as  they  went  by,  and 
glanced  demurely  at  the  hung-up  mistletoe.  There  were 
pears  and  apples  clustered  high  in  blooming  pyramids  ; 
there  were  bunches  of  grapes,  made,  in  the  shopkeepers' 
benevolence,  to  dangle  from  conspicuous  hooks,  that  peo- 
ple's mouths  might  water  gratis  as  they  passed  ;  there  were 
piles  of  filberts,  mossy  and  brown,  recalling,  in  their  fra- 
grance, ancient  walks  among  the  woods,  and  pleasant 
shufflings,  ankle  deep,  through  withered  leaves;  there  were 
Norfolk  Biffins,  squab  and  swarthy,  setting  off  the  yellow 
of  the  oranges  and  lemons,  and  in  the  great  compactness 
of  their  juicy  persons  urgently  entreating  and  beseeching 
to  be  carried  home  in  paper  bags,  and  eaten  after  dinner. 
The  very  gold  and  silver  fish,  set  forth  among  these  choice 
fruits  in  a  bowl,  though  members  of  a  dull  and  stagnant- 
blooded  race,  appeared  to  know  that  there  was  something 
going  on,  and,  to  a  fish,  went  gasping  round  and  round 
their  little  world  in  slow  and  passionless  excitement. 

The  Grocers'  !  O  the  Grocers' !  nearly  closed,  with  per- 
haps two  shutters  down,  or  one  ;  but  through  those  gaps 
such  glimpses  !  It  was  not  alone  that  the  scales  descend- 
ing on  the  counter  made  a  merry  sound,  or  that  the  twine 
and  roller  parted  company  so  briskly,  or  that  the  canisters, 
were  rattled  up  and  down  like  juggling  tricks,  or  even  that 
the  blended  scents  of  tea  and  coffee  were  so  grateful  to  the 
nose,  or  even  that  the  raisins  were  so  plentiful  and  rare,  the 
almonds  so  extremely  white,  the  sticks  of  cinnamon  so  long 
and  straight,  the  other  spices  so  delicious,  the  candied  fruits 
so  caked   and  spotted  with   molten   sugar  as  to  make  the 


62  A   CHRISTMAS   CAROL. 

coldest  lookers-on  feel  faint,  and  subsequently  bilious. 
Nor  was  it  that  the  figs  were  moist  and  pulpy,  or  that  the 
French  plums  blushed  in  modest  tartness  from  their  highly 
decorated  boxes,  or  that  everything  was  good  to  eat  and  in 
its  Christmas  dress  ;  but  the  customers  were  all  so  hurried 
and  so  eager  in  the  hopeful  promise  of  the  day,  that  they 
tumbled  up  against  each  other  at  the  door,  crashing  their 
wicker  baskets  wildly,  and  left  their  purchases  upon  the 
counter,  and  came  running  back  to  fetch  them,  and  com- 
mitted hundreds  of  the  like  mistakes,  in  the  best  humor 
possible  ;  while  the  Grocer  and  his  people  were  so  frank 
and  fresh,  that  the  polished  hearts  with  which  they  fastened 
their  aprons  behind  might  have  been  their  own,  worn  out- 
side for  general  inspection,  and  for  Christmas  daws  to  peck 
at  if  they  chose. 

But  soon  the  steeples  called  good  people  all  to  church 
and  chapel,  and  away  they  came,  flocking  through  the 
streets  in  their  best  clothes,,  and  with  their  gayest  faces. 
And  at  the  same  time  there  emerged  from  scores  of  by- 
streets, lanes,  and  nameless  turnings,  innumerable  people, 
carrying  their  dinners  to  the  bakers'  shops.  The  sight  of 
these  poor  revellers  appeared  to  interest  the  Spirit  very 
much  ;  for  he  stood  with  Scrooge  beside  him  in  a  baker's 
door-way,  and,  taking  off  the  covers  as  their  bearers  passed, 
sprinkled  incense  on  their  dinners  from  his  torch.  And  it 
was  a  very  uncommon  kind  of  torch,  for  once  or  twice 
when  there  were  angry  words  between  some  dinner-carriers 
who  had  jostled  each  other,  he  shed  a  few  drops  of  water 
on  them  from  it,  and  their  good -humor  was  restored  di- 
rectly. For  they  said  it  was  a  shame  to  quarrel  upon 
Christmas  Day.     And  so  it  was  !     God  love  it,  so  it  was  ! 

In  time  the  bells  ceased,  and  the  bakers  were  shut  up  ; 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  63 

and  yet  there  was  a  genial  shadowing  forth  of  all  these  din- 
ners and  the  progress  of  their  cooking,  in  the  thawed  blotch 
of  wet  above  each  baker's  oven,  where  the  pavement 
smoked  as  if  its  stones  were  cooking  too. 

"  Is  there  a  peculiar  flavor  in  what  you  sprinkle  from 
your  torch  ? "  asked   Scrooge. 

"  There  is.     My  own." 

"  Would  it  apply  to  any  kind  of  dinner  on  this  day  ? " 
asked  Scrooge. 

"  To  any  kindly  given.     To  a  poor  one  most." 

"  Why  to  a  poor  one  most  ?  "  asked  Scrooge. 

"  Because  it  needs  it  most." 

"  Spirit,"  said  Scrooge,  after  a  moment's  thought,  "  I 
wonder  you,  of  all  the  beings  in  the  many  worlds  about  us, 
should  desire  to  cramp  these  people's  opportunities  of  inno- 
cent enjoyment." 

"  I  !  "  cried  the  Spirit. 

"  You  would  deprive  them  of  their  means  of  dining 
every  seventh  day,  often  the  only  day  on  which  they  can 
be  said  to  dine  at  all,"  said  Scrooge,  —  "  would  n't  you  ?  " 

"  I  !  "  cried  the  Spirit. 

"  You  seek  to  close  these  places  on  the  Seventh  Day  ?  " 
said  Scrooge.     "And  it  comes  to  the  same  thing." 

"  /  seek  !  "  exclaimed  the  Spirit. 

"  Forgive  me  if  I  am  wrong.  It  has  been  done  in  your 
name,  or  at  least  in  that  of  your  family,"  said  Scrooge. 

"  There  are  some  upon  this  earth  of  yours,"  returned  the 
Spirit,  "  who  lay  claim  to  know  us,  and  who  do  their  deeds 
of  passion,  pride,  ill-will,  hatred,  envy,  bigotry,  and  selfish- 
ness in  our  name,  who  are  as  strange  to  us,  and  all  our 
kith  and  kin,  as  if  they  had  never  lived.  Remember  that, 
and  charge  their  doings  on  themselves,  not  us." 


64  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

Scrooge  promised  that  he  would  ;  and  they  went  on, 
invisible,  as  they  had  been  before,  into  the  suburbs  of  the 
town.  It  was  a  remarkable  quality  of  the  Ghost  (which 
Scrooge  had  observed  at  the  baker's),  that,  notwithstanding 
his  gigantic  size,  he  could  accommodate  himself  to  any 
place  with  ease  ;  and  that  he  stood  beneath  a  low  roof 
quite  as  gracefully  and  like  a  supernatural  creature  as  it 
was  possible  he  could  have  done  in  any  lofty  hall. 

And  perhaps  it  was  the  pleasure  the  good  Spirit  had  in 
showing  off  this  power  of  his,  or  else  it  was  his  own  kind, 
generous,  hearty  nature,  and  his  sympathy  with  all  poor 
men,  that  led  him  straight  to  Scrooge's  clerk's  ;  for  there 
he  went,  and  took  Scrooge  with  him,  holding  to  his  robe  ; 
and  on  the  threshold  of  the  door  the  Spirit  smiled,  and 
stopped  to  bless  Bob  Cratchit's  dwelling  with  the  sprink- 
lings of  his  torch.  Think  of  that !  Bob  had  but  fifteen 
"Bob"  a  week  himself;  he  pocketed  on  Saturdays  but 
fifteen  copies  of  his  Christian  name  ;  and  yet  the  ghost  of 
Christmas  Present  blessed  his  four-roomed  house  ! 

Then  uprose  Mrs.  Cratchit,  Cratchit's  wife,  dressed  out 
but  poorly  in  a  twice-turned  gown,  but  brave  in  ribbons, 
which  are  cheap  and  make  a  goodly  show  for  sixpence  ; 
and  she  laid  the  cloth,  assisted  by  Belinda  Cratchit,  second 
of  her  daughters,  also  brave  in  ribbons  ;  while  Master  Peter 
Cratchit  plunged  a  fork  into  the  saucepan  of  potatoes,  and, 
getting  the  corners  of  his  monstrous  shirt-collar  (Bob's 
private  property,  conferred  upon  his  son  and  heir  in  honor 
of  the  day)  into  his  mouth,  rejoiced  to  find  himself  so  gal- 
lantly attired,  and  yearned  to  show  his  linen  in  the  fashion- 
able Parks.  And  now  two  smaller  Cratchits,  boy  and  girl, 
came  tearing  in,  screaming  that  outside  the  baker's  they 
had    smelt  the  goose,  and   known  it  for  their  own  ;  and, 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  6$ 

basking  in  luxurious  thoughts  of  sage  and  onion,  these 
young  Cratchits  danced  about  the  table,  and  exalted 
Master  Peter  Cratchit  to  the  skies,  while  he  (not  proud, 
although  his  collars  near  choked  him)  blew  the  fire,  until 
the  slow  potatoes,  bubbling  up,  knocked  loudly  at  the 
saucepan-lid  to  be  let  out  and  peeled. 

"  What  has  ever  got  your  precious  father,  then  ? "  said 
Mrs.  Cratchit.  "  And  your  brother  Tiny  Tim !  And 
Martha  warn't  as  late  last  Christmas  Day  by  half  an 
hour !  " 

"  Here  's  Martha,  mother  !  "  said  a  girl,  appearing  as  she 
spoke. 

"  Here 's  Martha,  mother  !  "  cried  the  two  young  Cratch- 
its.    "  Hurrah  !     There  's  such  a  goose,  Martha  !  " 

"Why,  bless  your  heart  alive,  my  dear,  how  late  you 
are  ! "  said  Mrs.  Cratchit,  kissing  her  a  dozen  times,  and 
taking  off  her  shawl  and  bonnet  for  her  with  officious 
zeal. 

"  We  'd  a  deal  of  work  to  finish  up  last  night,"  replied 
the  girl,  "  and  had  to  clear  away  this  morning,  mother  !  " 

"  Well !  never  mind,  so  long  as  you  are  come,"  said  Mrs. 
Cratchit.  "  Sit  ye  down  before  the  fire,  my  dear,  and  have 
a  warm,  Lord  bless  ye  ! " 

"  No,  no  !  There  's  father  coming,"  cried  the  two  young 
Cratchits,  who  were  everywhere  at  once.  "  Hide,  Martha, 
hide ! " 

So  Martha  hid  herself,  and  in  came  little  Bob,  the  father, 
with  at  least  three  feet  of  comforter,  exclusive  of  the  fringe, 
hanging  down  before  him  ;  and  his  threadbare  clothes 
darned  up  and  brushed,  to  look  seasonable  ;  and  Tiny  Tim 
upon  his  shoulder.  Alas  for  Tiny  Tim,  he  bore  a  little 
crutch,  and  had  his  limbs  supported  by  an  iron  frame  ! 
5 


66  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

"  Why,  where  's  our  Martha  ? "  cried  Bob  Cratchit,  look- 
ing round. 

"  Not  coming,"  said  Mrs.  Cratchit. 

"  Not  coming !  "  said  Bob,  with  a  sudden  declension  in 
his  high  spirits  ;  for  he  had  been  Tim's  blood  horse  all  the 
way  from  church,  and  had  come  home  rampant,  — "  not 
coming  upon  Christmas  Day  !  " 

Martha  did  n't  like  to  see  him  disappointed,  if  it  were 
only  in  joke  ;  so  she  came  out  prematurely  from  behind  the 
closet  door,  and  ran  into  his  arms,  while  the  two  young 
Cratchits  hustled  Tiny  Tim,  and  bore  him  off  into  the 
wash-house,  that  he  might  hear  the  pudding  singing  in  the 
copper. 

"And  how  did  little  Tim  behave?"  asked  Mrs.  Cratchit, 
when  she  had  rallied  Bob  on  his  credulity,  and  Bob  had 
hugged  his  daughter  to  his  heart's  content. 

"  As  good  as  gold,"  said  Bob,  "  and  better.  Somehow 
he  gets  thoughtful,  sitting  by  himself  so  much,  and  thinks 
the  strangest  things  you  ever  heard.  He  told  me,  coming 
home,  that  he  hoped  the  people  saw  him  in  the  church, 
because  he  was  a  cripple,  and  it  might  be  pleasant  to  them 
to  remember,  upon  Christmas  Day,  who  made  lame  beggars 
walk  and  blind  men  see." 

Bob's  voice  was  tremulous  when  he  told  them  this,  and 
trembled  more  when  he  said  that  Tiny  Tim  was  growing 
strong  and  hearty. 

His  active  little  crutch  was  heard  upon  the  floor,  and 
back  came  Tiny  Tim  before  another  word  was  spoken, 
escorted  by  his  brother  and  sister  to  his  stool  beside  the 
fire  ;  and  while  Bob,  turning  up  his  cuffs,  —  as  if,  poor  fel- 
low, they  were  capable  of  being  made  more  shabby  !  —  com- 
pounded some  hot  mixture  in  a  jug  with  gin  and  lemons, 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  67 

and  stirred  it  round  and  round,  and  put  it  on  the  hob  to 
simmer,  Master  Peter  and  the  two  ubiquitous  young  Cratch- 
its  went  to  fetch  the  goose,  with  which  they  soon  returned 
in  high  procession. 

Such  a  bustle  ensued  that  you  might  have  thought  a 
goose  the  rarest  of  all  birds  ;  a  feathered  phenomenon,  to 
which  a  black  swan  was  a  matter  of  course,  —  and  in  truth 
it  was  something  very  like  it  in  that  house.  Mrs.  Cratchit 
made  the  gravy  (ready  beforehand  in  a  little  saucepan) 
hissing  hot ;  Master  Peter  mashed  the  potatoes  with  in- 
credible vigor;  Miss  Belinda  sweetened  up  the  apple- 
sauce ;  Martha  dusted  the  hot  plates  ;  Bob  took  Tiny  Tim 
beside  him  in  a  tiny  corner  at  the  table ;  the  two  young 
Cratch  its  set  chairs  for  everybody,  not  forgetting  them- 
selves, and,  mounting  guard  upon  their  posts,  crammed 
spoons  into  their  mouths,  lest  they  should  shriek  for  goose 
before  their  turn  came  to  be  helped.  At  last  the  dishes 
were  set  on,  and  grace  was  said.  It  was  succeeded  by  a 
breathless  pause,  as  Mrs.  Cratchit,  looking  slowly  all  along 
the  carving-knife,  prepared  to  plunge  it  in  the  breast ;  but 
when  she  did,  and  when  the  long-expected  gush  of  stuffing 
issued  forth,  one  murmur  of  delight  arose  all  round  the 
board,  and  even  Tiny  Tim,  excited  by  the  two  young 
Cratchits,  beat  on  the  table  with  the  handle  of  his  knife, 
and  feebly  cried  Hurrah  ! 

There  never  was  such  a  goose.  Bob  said  he  did  n't  be- 
lieve there  ever  was  such  a  goose  cooked.  Its  tenderness 
and  flavor,  size  and  cheapness,  were  the  themes  of  universal 
admiration.  Eked  out  by  apple-sauce  and  mashed  potatoes, 
it  was  a  sufficient  dinner  for  the  whole  family ;  indeed,  as 
Mrs.  Cratchit  said  with  great  delight  (surveying  one  small 
atom  of  a  bone  upon  the  dish),  they  had  n't  ate  it  all  at 


68  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

last !  Yet  every  one  had  had  enough,  and  the  youngest 
Cratchits,  in  particular,  were  steeped  in  sage  and  onions  to 
the  eyebrows  !  But  now,  the  plates  being  changed  by  Miss 
Belinda,  Mrs.  Cratchit  left  the  room  alone,  —  too  nervous  to 
bear  witnesses,  —  to  take  the  pudding  up,  and  bring  it  in. 

Suppose  it  should  not  be  done  enough  !  Suppose  it 
should  break  in  turning  out !  Suppose  somebody  should 
have  got  over  the  wall  of  the  back  yard,  and  stolen  it,  while 
they  were  merry  with  the  goose,  —  a  supposition  at  which 
the  two  young  Cratchits  became  livid  !  All  sorts  of  hor- 
rors were  supposed. 

Hallo  !  A  great  deal  of  steam  !  The  pudding  was  out 
of  the  copper.  A  smell  like  a  washing-day  !  That  was  the 
cloth.  A  smell  like  an  eating-house  and  a  pastry-cook's  next 
door  to  each  other,  with  a  laundress's  next  door  to  that ! 
That  was  the  pudding !  In  half  a  minute  Mrs.  Cratchit 
entered  —  flushed,  but  smiling  proudly  —  with  the  pudding, 
like  a  speckled  cannon-ball,  so  hard  and  firm,  blazing  in 
half  of  half-a-quartern  of  ignited  brandy,  and  bedight  with 
Christmas  holly  stuck  into  the  top. 

O,  a  wonderful  pudding !  Bob  Cratchit  said,  and  calmly 
too,  that  he  regarded  it  as  the  greatest  success  achieved  by 
Mrs.  Cratchit  since  their  marriage.  Mrs.  Cratchit  said  that, 
now  the  weight  was  off  her  mind,  she  would  confess  she 
had  had  her  doubts  about  the  quantity  of  flour.  Everybody 
had  something  to  say  about  it,  but  nobody  said  or  thought 
it  was  at  all  a  small  pudding  for  a  large  family.  It  would 
have  been  flat  heresy  to  do  so.  Any  Cratchit  would  have 
blushed  to  hint  at  such  a  thing. 

At  last  the  dinner  was  all  done,  the  cloth  was  cleared,  the 
hearth  swept  and  the  fire  made  up.  The  compound  in  the 
jug  being  tasted,  and  considered  perfect,  apples  and  oranges 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  69 

were  put  upon  the  table,  and  a  shovelful  of  chestnuts  on  the 
fire.  Then  all  the  Cratchit  family  drew  round  the  hearth, 
in  what  Bob  Cratchit  called  a  circle,  meaning  half  a  one ; 
and  at  Bob  Cratchit's  elbow  stood  the  family  display  of 
glass,  —  two  tumblers  and  a  custard-cup  without  a  handle. 

These  held  the  hot  stuff  from  the  jug,  however,  as  well  as 
golden  goblets  would  have  done  ;  and  Bob  served  it  out 
with  beaming  looks,  while  the  chestnuts  on  the  fire  sput- 
tered and  cracked  noisily.     Then  Bob  proposed,  — 

"  A  merry  Christmas  to  us  all,  my  dears  !  God  bless 
us  ! "     Which  all  the  family  re-echoed. 

"  God  bless  us  every  one  ! "  said  Tiny  Tim,  the  last  of  all. 

He  sat  very  close  to  his  father's  side,  upon  his  little  stool. 
Bob  held  his  withered  little  hand  in  his,  as  if  he  loved  the 
child,  and  wished  to  keep  him  by  his  side,  and  dreaded  that 
he  might  be  taken  from  him. 

"  Spirit,"  said  Scrooge,  with  an  interest  he  had  never  felt 
before,  "  tell  me  if  Tiny  Tim  will  live." 

"  I  see  a  vacant  seat,"  replied  the  Ghost,  "  in  the  poor 
chimney-corner,  and  a  crutch  without  an  owner,  carefully 
preserved.  If  these  shadows  remain  unaltered  by  the 
Future,  the  child  will  die." 

"  No,  no,"  said  Scrooge.  "  O  no,  kind  Spirit !  say  he 
will  be  spared." 

"  If  these  shadows  remain  unaltered  by  the  Future,  none 
other  of  my  race,"  returned  the  Ghost,  "  will  find  him  here. 
What  then  ?  If  he  be  like  to  die,  he  had  better  do  it,  and 
decrease  the  surplus  pcpulation." 

Scrooge  hung  his  head  to  hear  his  own  words  quoted  by 
the  Spirit,  and  was  overcome  with  penitence  and  grief. 

"  Man,"  said  the  Ghost,  "  if  man  you  be  in  heart,  not 
adamant,  forbear  that  wicked  cant  until  you  have  d|scov- 


JO  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

ered  What  the  surplus  is,  and  Where  it  is.  Will  you  de- 
cide what  men  shall  live,  what  men  shall  die  ?  It  may  be, 
that,  in  the  sight  of  Heaven,  you  are  more  worthless  and 
less  fit  to  live  than  millions  like  this  poor  man's  child.  O 
God !  to  hear  the  Insect  on  the  leaf  pronouncing  on  the 
too  much  life  among  his  hungry  brothers  in  the  dust ! " 

Scrooge  bent  before  the  Ghost's  rebuke,  and,  trembling, 
cast  his  eyes  upon  the  ground.  But  he  raised  them  speedily, 
on  hearing  his  own  name. 

"  Mr.  Scrooge  ! "  said  Bob  ;  "  I  '11  give  you  Mr.  Scrooge, 
the  Founder  of  the  Feast !  " 

"  The  Founder  of  the  Feast,  indeed !"  cried  Mrs.  Cratchit, 
reddening.  "  I  wished  I  had  him  here.  I  'd  give  him  a 
piece  of  my  mind  to  feast  upon,  and  I  hope  he  'd  have  a 
good  appetite  for  it." 

"  My  dear,"  said  Bob,  "  the  children  !     Christmas  Day." 

"  It  should  be  Christmas  Day,  I  am  sure,"  said  she,  "  on 
which  one  drinks  the  health  of  such  an  odious,  stingy,  hard, 
unfeeling  man  as  Mr.  Scrooge.  You  know  he  is,  Robert ! 
Nobody  knows  it  better  than  you  do,  poor  fellow  !  " 

"My  dear, "  was  Bob's  mild  answer,  "Christmas  Day." 

"  I  '11  drink  his  health  for  your  sake  and  the  day's,  "  said 
Mrs.  Cratchit,  "not  for  his.  Long  life  to  him!  A  merry 
Christmas  and  a  happy  new  year  !  He  '11  be  very  merry 
and  very  happy,  I  have  no  doubt ! " 

The  children  drank  the  toast  after  her.  It  was  the  first 
of  their  proceedings  which  had  no  heartiness  in  it.  Tiny 
Tim  drank  it  last  of  all,  but  he  did  n't  care  twopence  for  it. 
Scrooge  was  the  Ogre  of  the  family.  The  mention  of  his 
name  cast  a  dark  shadow  on  the  party,  which  was  not  dis- 
pelled for  full  five  minutes. 

After  it  had  passed  away,  they  were  ten  times  merrier 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  J\ 

than  before,  from  the  mere  relief  of  Scrooge  the  Baleful  be- 
ing done  with.  Bob  Cratchit  told  them  how  he  had  a  situ- 
ation in  his  eye  for  Master  Peter,  which  would  bring  in,  if 
obtained,  full  five  and  sixpence  weekly.  The  two  young 
Cratchits  laughed  tremendously  at  the  idea  of  Peter's  being 
a  man  of  business  ;  and  Peter  himself  looked  thoughtfully 
at  the  fire  from  between  his  collars,  as  if  he  were  deliberating 
what  particular  investments  he  should  favor  when  he  came 
into  the  receipt  of  that  bewildering  income.  Martha,  who 
was  a  poor  apprentice  at  a  milliner's,  then  told  them  what 
kind  of  work  she  had  to  do,  and  how  many  hours  she  worked 
at  a  stretch,  and  how  she  meant  to  lie  abed  to-morrow  morn- 
ing for  a  good  long  rest :  to-morrow,  being  a  holiday,  she 
passed  at  home.  Also,  how  she  had  seen  a  countess  and  a 
lord  some  days  before,  and  how  the  lord  "  was  much  about 
as  tall  as  Peter"  ;  at  which  Peter  pulled  up  his  collars  so 
high  that  you  could  n't  have  seen  his  head  if  you  had  been 
there.  All  this  time  the  chestnuts  and  the  jug  went  round 
and  round  ;  and  by  and  by  they  had  a  song,  about  a  lost 
child  travelling  in  the  snow,  from  Tiny  Tim,  who  had  a 
plaintive  little  voice,  and  sang  it  very  well  indeed. 

There  was  nothing  of  high  mark  in  this.  They  were  not 
a  handsome  family  ;  they  were  not  well  dressed  ;  their  shoes 
were  far  from  being  waterproof;  their  clothes  were  scanty  ; 
and  Peter  might  have  known,  and  very  likely  did,  the  inside 
of  a  pawnbroker's.  But  they  were  happy,  grateful,  pleased 
with  one  another,  and  contented  with  the  time  ;  and  when 
they  faded,  and  looked  happier  yet  in  the  bright  sprinklings 
of  the  Spirit's  torch  at  parting,  Scrooge  had  his  eye  upon 
them,  and  especially  on  Tiny  Tim,  until  the  last. 

By  this  time  it  was  getting  dark,  and  snowing  pretty 
heavily  ;    and    as  Scrooge  and    the  Spirit  went  along  the 


72  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

streets,  the  brightness  of  the  roaring  fires  in  kitchens,  par- 
lors, and  all  sorts  of  rooms,  was  wonderful.  Here  the  flicker- 
ing of  the  blaze  showed  preparations  for  a  cosey  dinner,  with 
hot  plates  baking  through  and  through  before  the  fire,  and 
deep  red  curtains  ready  to  be  drawn  to  shut  out  cold  and 
darkness.  There  all  the  children  of  the  house  were  running 
out  into  the  snow  to  meet  their  married  sisters,  brothers, 
cousins,  uncles,  aunts,  and  be  the  first  to  greet  them.  Here, 
again,  were  shadows  on  the  window-blinds  of  guests  assem- 
bling ;  and  there  a  group  of  handsome  girls,  all  hooded  and 
fur-booted,  and  all  chattering  at  once,  tripped  lightly  off  to 
some  near  neighbor's  house,  where  woe  upon  the  single 
man  who  saw  them  enter — artful  witches,  well  they  knew 
it  —  in  a  glow ! 

But,  if  you  had  judged  from  the  numbers  of  people  on 
their  way  to  friendly  gatherings,  you  might  have  thought 
that  no  one  was  at  home  to  give  them  welcome  when  they 
got  there,  instead  of  every  house  expecting  company,  and 
piling  up  its  fires  half-chimney  high.  Blessings  on  it,  how 
the  Ghost  exulted  !  How  it  bared  its  breadth  of  breast,  and 
opened  its  capacious  palm,  and  floated  on,  outpouring,  with 
a  generous  hand,  its  bright  and  harmless  mirth  on  every- 
thing within  its  reach  !  The  very  lamplighter,  who  ran  on 
before,  dotting  the  dusky  street  with  specks  of  light,  and 
who  was  dressed  to  spend  the  evening  somewhere,  laughed 
out  loudly  as  the  Spirit  passed,  though  little  kenned  the 
lamplighter  that  he  had  any  company  but  Christmas ! 

And  now,  without  a  word  of  warning  from  the  Ghost, 
they  stood  upon  a  bleak  and  desert  moor,  where  monstrous 
masses  of  rude  stone  were  cast  about,  as  though  it  were  the 
burial-place  of  giants  ;  and  water  spread  itself  wheresoever  it 
listed  ;  or  would  have  done  so,  but  for  the  frost  that  held  it 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  J$ 

prisoner  ;  and  nothing  grew  but  moss  and  furze,  and  coarse, 
rank  grass.  Down  in  the  west  the  setting  sun  had  left  a 
streak  of  fiery  red,  which  glared  upon  the  desolation  for  an 
instant,  like  a  sullen  eye,  and  frowning  lower,  lower,  lower 
yet,  was  lost  in  the  thick  gloom  of  darkest  night. 

"  What  place  is  this  ? "  asked  Scrooge. 

"A  place  where  Miners  live,  who  labor  in  the  bowels  of 
the  earth, "  returned  the  Spirit.  "  But  they  know  me. 
See  ! " 

A  light  shone  from  the  window  of  a  hut,  and  swiftly  they 
advanced  towards  it.  Passing  through  the  wall  of  mud  and 
stone,  they  found  a  cheerful  company  assembled  round  a 
glowing  fire.  An  old,  old  man  and  woman,  with  their  chil- 
dren and  their  children's  children,  and  another  generation 
beyond  that,  all  decked  out  gayly  in  their  holiday  attire. 
The  old  man,  in  a  voice  that  seldom  rose  above  the  howling 
of  the  wind  upon  the  barren  waste,  was  singing  them  a 
Christmas  song  ;  it  had  been  a  very  old  song  when  he  was 
a  boy  ;  and  from  time  to  time  they  all  joined  in  the  chorus. 
So  surely  as  they  raised  their  voices,  the  old  man  got  quite 
blithe  and  loud ;  and  so  surely  as  they  stopped,  his  vigor 
sank  again. 

The  Spirit  did  not  tarry  here,  but  bade  Scrooge  hold  his 
robe,  and,  passing  on  above  the  moor,  sped  whither  ?  Not 
to  sea  ?  To  sea.  To  Scrooge's  horror,  looking  back,  he 
saw  the  last  of  the  land,  a  frightful  range  of  rocks,  behind 
them  ;  and  his  ears  were  deafened  by  the  thundering  of 
water,  as  it  rolled  and  roared  and  raged  among  the  dreadful 
caverns  it  had  worn,  and  fiercely  tried  to  undermine  the 
earth. 

Built  upon  a  dismal  reef  of  sunken  rocks,  some  league  or 
so  from  shore,  on  which  the  waters  chafed  and  dashed,  the 


74  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

wild  year  through,  there  stood  a  solitary  light-house.  Great 
heaps  of  sea-weed  clung  to  its  base,  and  storm-birds  —  born 
of  the  wind,  one  might  suppose,  as  sea-weed  of  the  water 
—  rose  and  fell  about  it,  like  the  waves  they  skimmed. 

But  even  here  two  men  who  watched  the  light  had  made 
a  fire,  that  through  the  loop-hole  in  the  thick  stone  wall  shed 
out  a  ray  of  brightness  on  the  awful  sea.  Joining  their  horny 
hands  over  the  rough  table  at  which  they  sat,  they  wished 
each  other  Merry  Christmas  in  their  can  of  grog  ;  and  one 
of  them,  the  elder  too,  with  his  face  all  damaged  and  scarred 
with  hard  weather,  as  the  figure-head  of  an  old  ship  might 
be,  struck  up  a  sturdy  song,  that  was  like  a  gale  in  itself. 

Again  the  Ghost  sped  on,  above  the  black  and  heaving 
sea,  —  on,  on, — until,  being  far  away,  as  he  told  Scrooge, 
from  any  shore,  they  lighted  on  a  ship.  They  stood  beside 
the  helmsman  at  the  wheel,  the  lookout  in  the  bow,  the  offi- 
cers who  had  the  watch,  —  dark,  ghostly  figures  in  their 
several  stations  ;  but  every  man  among  them  hummed  a 
Christmas  tune,  or  had  a  Christmas  thought,  or  spoke  be- 
low his  breath  to  his  companion  of  some  bygone  Christmas 
Day,  with  homeward  hopes  belonging  to  it.  And  every 
man  on  board,  waking  or  sleeping,  good  or  bad,  had  had  a 
kinder  word  for  one  another  on  that  day  than  on  any  day 
in  the  year,  and  had  shared  to  some  extent  in  its  festivities, 
and  had  remembered  those  he  cared  for  at  a  distance,  and 
had  known  that  they  delighted  to  remember  him. 

It  was  a  great  surprise  to  Scrooge,  while  listening  to  the 
moaning  of  the  wind,  and  thinking  what  a  solemn  thing  it 
was  to  move  on  through  the  lonely  darkness  over  an  un- 
known abyss,  whose  depths  were  secrets  as  profound  as 
Death, —  it  was  a  great  surprise  to  Scrooge,  while  thus  en- 
gaged, to  hear  a  hearty  laugh.     It  was  a  much  greater  sur- 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  75 

prise  to  Scrooge  to  recognize  it  as  his  own  nephew's,  and 
to  find  himself  in  a  bright,  dry,  gleaming  room,  with  the 
Spirit  standing  smiling  by  his  side,  and  looking  at  that 
same  nephew  with  approving  affability  ! 

"  Ha  !   ha  !  "  laughed  Scrooge's  nephew.     "  Ha,  ha,  ha ! " 

If  you  should  happen,  by  any  unlikely  chance,  to  know  a 
man  more  blest  in  a  laugh  than  Scrooge's  nephew,  all  I  can 
say  is,  I  should  like  to  know  him  too.  Introduce  him  to 
me,  and  I  '11  cultivate  his  acquaintance. 

It  is  a  fair,  even-handed,  noble  adjustment  of  things,  that, 
while  there  is  infection  in  disease  and  sorrow,  there  is  noth- 
ing in  the  world  so  irresistibly  contagious  as  laughter  and 
good-humor.  When  Scrooge's  nephew  laughed  in  this 
way,  holding  his  sides,  rolling  his  head,  and  twisting  his 
face  into  the  most  extravagant  contortions,  Scrooge's  niece 
by  marriage  laughed  as  heartily  as  he.  And  their  assem- 
bled friends,  being  not  a  bit  behindhand,  roared  out  lustily. 

"  Ha,  ha  !  Ha,  ha,  ha,  ha ! " 

"  He  said  that  Christmas  was  a  humbug,  as  I  live  !  "  cried 
Scrooge's  nephew.     "  He  believed  it  too  !  " 

"  More  shame  for  him,  Fred  ! "  said  Scrooge's  niece, 
indignantly.  Bless  those  women !  they  never  do  anything 
by  halves.     They  are  always  in  earnest. 

She  was  very  pretty,  —  exceedingly  pretty.  With  a  dim- 
pled, surprised-looking,  capital  face  ;  a  ripe  little  mouth,  that 
seemed  rnade  to  be  kissed,  —  as  no  doubt  it  was  :  all  kinds 
of  good  little  dots  about  her  chin,  that  melted  into  one  an- 
other  when  she  laughed  ;  and  the  sunniest  pair  of  eyes  you 
ever  saw  in  any  little  creature's  head.  Altogether  she  was 
what  you  would  have  called  provoking,  you  know  ;  but  sat- 
isfactory, too.     O,  perfectly  satisfactory. 

"  He 's   a   comical   old   fellow,"    said    Scrooge's   nephew, 


y6  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

"that's  the  truth,  and  not  so  pleasant  as  he  might  be. 
However,  his  offences  carry  their  own  punishment,  and  I 
have  nothing  to  say  against  him." 

"  I  'm  sure  he  is  very  rich,  Fred,"  hinted  Scrooge's  niece. 
"  At  least,  you  always  tell  me  so." 

"  What  of  that,  my  dear  ! "  said  Scrooge's  nephew.  "  His 
wealth  is  of  no  use  to  him.  He  don't  do  any  good  with  it. 
He  don't  make  himself  comfortable  with  it.  He  has  n't  the 
satisfaction  of  thinking  —  ha,  ha,  ha  !  —  that  he  is  ever 
going  to  benefit  Us  with  it." 

"  I  have  no  patience  with  him,"  observed  Scrooge's  niece. 
Scrooge's  niece's  sisters,  and  all  the  other  ladies,  expressed 
the  same  opinion. 

"  O,  I  have  !  "  said  Scrooge's  nephew.  "  I  am  sorry  for 
him  ;  I  could  n't  be  angry  with  him  if  I  tried.  Who  suffers 
by  his  ill  whims  ?  Himself,  always.  Here  he  takes  it  into 
his  head  to  dislike  us,  and  he  won't  come  and  dine  with  us. 
What 's  the  consequence  ?  He  don't  lose  much  of  a  din- 
ner. 

"  Indeed,  I  think  he  loses  a  very  good  dinner,"  inter- 
rupted Scrooge's  niece.  Everybody  else  said  the  same  ;  and 
they  must  be  allowed  to  have  been  competent  judges,  be- 
cause they  had  just  had  dinner  ;  and,  with  the  dessert  upon 
the  table,  were  clustered  round  the  fire  by  lamplight. 

"  Well  !  I  am  very  glad  to  hear  it,"  said  Scrooge's 
nephew,  "  because  I  have  n't  any  great  faith  in  thege  young 
housekeepers.     What  do  you  say,  Topper  ? " 

Topper  had  clearly  got  his  eye  upon  one  of  Scrooge's 
niece's  sisters,  for  he  answered  that  a  bachelor  was  a  wretch- 
ed outcast,  who  had  no  right  to  express  an  opinion  on  the 
subject.  Whereat  Scrooge's  niece's  sister  —  the  plump  one 
with  the  lace  tucker,  not  the  one  with  the  roses  —  blushed. 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  JJ 

"  Do  go  on,  Fred,"  said  Scrooge's  niece,  clapping  her 
hands.  "  He  never  finishes  what  he  begins  to  say  !  He  is 
such  a  ridiculous  fellow  !  " 

Scrooge's  nephew  revelled  in  another  laugh,  and  as  it  was 
impossible  to  keep  the  infection  off,  though  the  plump  sister 
tried  hard  to  do  it  with  aromatic  vinegar,  his  example  was 
unanimously  followed. 

"  I  was  only  going  to  say,"  said  Scrooge's  nephew,  "  that 
the  consequence  of  his  taking  a  dislike  to  us,  and  not  mak- 
ing merry  with  us,  is,  as  I  think,  that  he  loses  some  pleasant 
moments  which  could  do  him  no  harm.  I  am  sure  he  loses 
pleasanter  companions  than  he  can  find  in  his  own  thoughts, 
either  in  his  mouldy  old  office  or  his  dusty  chambers.  I 
mean  to  give  him  the  same  chance  every  year,  whether  he 
likes  it  or  not,  for  I  pity  him.  H?  may  rail  at  Christmas 
till  he  dies,  but  he  can't  help  thinking  better  of  it  —  I  defy 
him  —  if  he  finds  me  going  there,  in  good  temper,  year 
after  year,  and  saying,  '  Uncle  Scrooge,  how  are  you  ? '  If 
it  only  puts  him  in  the  vein  to  leave  his  poor  clerk  fifty 
pounds,  that 's  something ;  and  I  think  I  shook  him  yester- 
day." 

It  was  their  turn  to  laugh  now,  at  the  notion  of  his  shak- 
ing Scrooge.  But  being  thoroughly  good-natured,  and  not 
much  caring  what  they  laughed  at,  so  that  they  laughed 
at  any  rate,  he  encouraged  them  in  their  merriment,  and 
passed  the  bottle  joyously. 

After  tea  they  had  some  music  ;  for  they  were  a  musical 
family,  and  knew  what  they  were  about  when  they  sung  a 
Glee  or  Catch,  I  can  assure  you ;  especially  Topper,  who 
could  growl  away  in  the  bass  like  a  good  one,  and  never 
swell  the  large  veins  in  his  forehead,  or  get  red  in  the  face 
over  it.     Scrooge's  niece  played  well  upon  the  harp  ;  and 


yS  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

played,  among  other  tunes,  a  simple  little  air  (a  mere  noth- 
ing ;  you  might  learn  to  whistle  it  in  two  minutes),  which 
had  been  familiar  to  the  child  who  fetched  Scrooge  from 
the  boarding-school,  as  he  had  been  reminded  by  the  Ghost 
of  Christmas  Past.  When  this  strain  of  music  sounded,  all 
the  things  that  Ghost  had  shown  him  came  upon  his  mind  ; 
he  softened  more  and  more  ;  and  thought  that  if  he  could 
have  listened  to  it  often,  years  ago,  he  might  have  cultivated 
the  kindnesses  of  life  for  his  own  happiness  with  his  own 
hands,  without  resorting  to  the  sexton's  spade  that  buried 
Jacob  Marley. 

But  they  did  n't  devote  the  whole  evening  to  music. 
After  a  while  they  played  at  forfeits  ;  for  it  is  good  to  be 
children  sometimes,  and  never  better  than  at  Christmas, 
when  its  mighty  Founder  was  a  child  himself.  Stop  !  There 
was  first  a  game  at  blind-man's-buff.  Of  course  there  was. 
And  I  no  more  believe  Topper  was  really  blind  than  I  be- 
lieve he  had  eyes  in  his  boots.  My  opinion  is,  that  it  was 
a  done  thing  between  him  and  Scrooge's  nephew,  and  that 
the  Ghost  of  Christmas  Present  knew  it.  The  way  he  went 
after  that  plump  sister  in  the  lace  tucker  was  an  outrage  on 
the  credulity  of  human  nature.  Knocking  down  the  fire- 
irons,  tumbling  over  the  chairs,  bumping  up  against  the  pi- 
ano, smothering  himself  amongst  the  curtains,  wherever  she 
went,  there  went  he !  He  always  knew  where  the  plump 
sister  was.  He  would  n't  catch  anybody  else.  If  you  had 
fallen  up  against  him  (as  some  of  them  did)  on  purpose,  he 
would  have  made  a  feint  of  endeavoring  to  seize  you,  which 
would  have  been  an  affront  to  your  understanding,  and 
would  instantly  have  sidled  off  in  the  direction  of  the  plump 
sister.  She  often  cried  out  that  it  was  n't  fair  ;  and  it  really 
was  not.     But  when  at  last  he  caught  her  ;  when,  in  spite 


Ifl'l  ;  I. 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  79 

of  all  her  silken  rustlings,  and  her  rapid  flutterings  past 
him,  he  got  her  into  a  corner  whence  there  was  no  es- 
cape,—  then  his  conduct  was  the  most  execrable.  For  his 
pretending  not  to  know  her  —  his  pretending  that  it  was  ne- 
cessary to  touch  her  head-dress,  and  further  to  assure  him- 
self of  her  identity  by  pressing  a  certain  ring  upon  her 
finger,  and  a  certain  chain  about  her  neck — was  vile, 
monstrous !  No  doubt  she  told  him  her  opinion  of  it, 
when,  another  blind-man  being  in  office,  they  were  so  very 
confidential  together  behind  the  curtains. 

Scrooge's  niece  was  not  one  of  the  blind-man's-buff"  party, 
but  was  made  comfortable  with  a  large  chair  and  a  footstool, 
in  a  snug  corner  where  the  Ghost  and  Scrooge  were  close 
behind  her.  But  she  joined  in  the  forfeits,  and  loved  her 
love  to  admiration  with  all  the  letters  of  the  alphabet. 
Likewise,  at  the  game  of  How,  When,  and  Where,  she  was 
very  great,  and,  to  the  secret  joy  of  Scrooge's  nephew,  beat 
her  sisters  hollow  ;  though  they  were  sharp  girls,  too,  as  Top- 
per could  have  told  you.  There  might  have  been  twenty 
people  there,  young  and  old,  but  they  all  played,  and  so  did 
Scrooge  ;  for,  wholly  forgetting,  in  the  interest  he  had  in 
what  was  going  on,  that  his  voice  made  no  sound  in  their 
ears,  he  sometimes  came  out  with  his  guess  quite  loud,  and 
very  often  guessed  right  too  ;  for  the  sharpest  needle,  best 
Whitechapel,  warranted  not  to  cut  in  the  eye,  was  not 
sharper  than  Scrooge,  blunt  as  he  took  it  in  his  head  to  be. 

The  Ghost  was  greatly  pleased  to  find  him  in  this  mood, 
and  looked  upon  him  with  such  favor  that  he  begged  like  a 
boy  to  be  allowed  to  stay  until  the  guests  departed.  But 
this  the  Spirit  said  could  not  be  done. 

"  Here  is  a  new  game,"  said  Scrooge.  "  One  half-hour, 
Spirit,  only  one !" 


SO  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

It  was  a  game  called  Yes  and  No,  where  Scrooge's  nephew 
had  to  think  of  something,  and  the  rest  must  find  out  what  ; 
he  only  answering  to  their  questions  yes  or  no,  as  the  case 
was.  The  brisk  fire  of  questioning  to  which  he  was  exposed 
elicited  from  him  that  he  was  thinking  of  an  animal,  a  live 
animal,  rather  a  disagreeable  animal,  a  savage  animal,  an  an- 
imal that  growled  and  grunted  sometimes,  and  talked  some- 
times, and  lived  in  London,  and  walked  about  the  streets,  and 
was  n't  made  a  show  of,  and  was  n't  led  by  anybody,  and 
did  n't  live  in  a  menagerie,  and  was  never  killed  in  a  mar- 
ket, and  was  not  a  horse,  or  an  ass,  or  a  cow,  or  a  bull,  or  a 
tiger,  or  a  dog,  or  a  pig,  or  a  cat,  or  a  bear.  At  every  fresh 
question  that  was  put  to  him,  this  nephew  burst  into  a 
fresh  roar  of  laughter,  and  was  so  inexpressibly  tickled,  that 
he  was  obliged  to  get  up  off  the  sofa  and  stamp.  At  last 
the  plump  sister,  falling  into  a  similar  state,  cried  out,  — 

"  I  have  found  it  out !  I  know  what  it  is,  Fred  !  I  know 
what  it  is ! " 

"  What  is  it  ? "  cried  Fred. 

"  It 's  your  uncle  Scro-o-o-o-oge  !  " 

Which  it  certainly  was.  Admiration  was  the  universal 
sentiment,  though  some  objected  that  the  reply  to  "  Is  it  a 
bear  ?  "  ought  to  have  been  "  Yes,"  inasmuch  as  an  answer 
in  the  negative  was  sufficient  to  have  diverted  their  thoughts 
from  Mr.  Scrooge,  supposing  they  had  ever  had  any  ten- 
dency that  way. 

"  He  has  given  us  plenty  of  merriment,  I  am  sure,"  said 
Fred,  "  and  it  would  be  ungrateful  not  to  drink  his  health. 
Here  is  a  glass  of  mulled  wine  ready  to  our  hand  at  the 
moment  ;  and  I  say,  '  Uncle  Scrooge  ! ' " 

"  Well !  Uncle  Scrooge  ! "  they  cried. 

"  A  Merry  Christmas,  and  a  Happy  New  Year  to  the  old 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  8 1 

man,  whatever  he  is ! "  said  Scrooge's  nephew.  "  He 
would  n't  take  it  from  me,  but  may  he  have  it,  nevertheless. 
Uncle  Scrooge  ! " 

Uncle  Scrooge  had  imperceptibly  become  so  gay  and  light 
of  heart,  that  he  would  have  pledged  the  unconscious  com- 
pany in  return,  and  thanked  them  in  an  inaudible  speech, 
if  the  Ghost  had  given  him  time.  But  the  whole  scene 
passed  off  in  the  breath  of  the  last  word  spoken  by  his 
nephew  ;  and  he  and  the  Spirit  were  again  upon  their  trav- 
els. 

Much  they  saw,  and  far  they  went,  and  many  homes  they 
visited,  but  always  with  a  happy  end.  The  Spirit  stood  be- 
side sick-beds,  and  they  were  cheerful  ;  on  foreign  lands, 
and  they  were  close  at  home  ;  by  struggling  men,  and  they 
were  patient  in  their  greater  hope  ;  by  poverty,  and  it  was 
rich.  In  almshouse,  hospital,  and  jail,  in  misery's  every  ref- 
uge, where  vain  man,  in  his  little  brief  authority,  had  not 
made  fast  the  door,  and  barred  the  Spirit  out,  he  left  his 
blessing,  and  taught  Scrooge  his  precepts. 

It  was  a  long  night,  if  it  were  only  a  night  ;  but  Scrooge 
had  his  doubts  of  this,  because  the  Christmas  Holidays 
appeared  to  be  condensed  into  the  space  of  time  they  passed 
together.  It  was  strange,  too,  that  while  Scrooge  remained 
unaltered  in  his  outward  form,  the  Ghost  grew  older,  clearly 
older.  Scrooge  had  observed  this  change,  but  never  spoke 
of  it  until  they  left  a  children's  Twelfth  Night  party,  when, 
looking  at  the  Spirit  as  they  stood  together  in  an  open 
place,  he  noticed  that  its  hair  was  gray. 

"Are  spirits'  lives  so  short  ?"  asked  Scrooge. 

"My  life  upon  this  globe  is  very  brief,"  replied  the  Ghost. 
"  It  ends  to-night." 

"  To-night !  "  cried  Scrooge. 
6 


82  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

"  To-night  at  midnight.  Hark !  The  time  is  drawing 
near." 

The  chimes  were  ringing  the  three  quarters  past  eleven 
at  that  moment. 

"  Forgive  me,  if  I  am  not  justified  in  what  I  ask,"  said 
Scrooge,  looking  intently  at  the  Spirit's  robe,  "  but  I  see 
something  strange,  and  not  belonging  to  yourself,  protrud- 
ing from  your  skirts.     Is  it  a  foot  or  a  claw  ? " 

"  It  might  be  a  claw,  for  the  flesh  there  is  upon  it,"  was  the 
Spirit's  sorrowful  reply.     "Look  here." 

From  the  foldings  of  its  robe,  it  brought  two  children, 
wretched,  abject,  frightful,  hideous,  miserable.  They  knelt 
down  at  its  feet,  and  clung  upon  the  outside  of  its  garment. 

"  O  Man  !  look  here.  Look,  look  down  here  !  "  ex- 
claimed the  Ghost. 

They  were  a  boy  and  girl.  Yellow,  meagre,  ragged, 
scowling,  wolfish ;  but  prostrate,  too,  in  their  humility. 
Where  graceful  youth  should  have  filled  their  features  out, 
and  touched  them  with  its  freshest  tints,  a  stale  and  shriv- 
elled hand,  like  that  of  age,  had  pinched  and  twisted  them, 
and  pulled  them  into  shreds.  Where  angels  might  have 
sat  enthroned,  devils  lurked,  and  glared  out  menacing. 
No  change,  no  degradation,  no  perversion  of  humanity,  in 
any  grade,  through  all  the  mysteries  of  wonderful  creation, 
has  monsters  half  so  horrible  and  dread. 

Scrooge  started  back,  appalled.  Having  them  shown  to 
him  in  this  way,  he  tried  to  say  they  were  fine  children  ;  but 
the  words  choked  themselves,  rather  than  be  parties  to  a  lie 
of  such  enormous  magnitude. 

"Spirit !  are  they  yours?"  Scrooge  could  say  no  more. 

"They  are  Man's,"  said  the  Spirit,  looking  down  upon 
them.       "  And    they   cling    to   me,    appealing    from    their 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  83 

fathers.  This  boy  is  Ignorance.  This  girl  is  Want.  Beware 
of  them  both,  and  all  of  their  degree,  but  most  of  all  beware 
this  boy,  for  on  his  brow  I  see  that  written  which  is  Doom, 
unless  the  writing  be  erased.  Deny  it ! "  cried  the  Spirit, 
stretching  out  its  hand  towards  the  city.  "  Slander  those 
who  tell  it  ye  !  Admit  it  for  your  factious  purposes,  and 
make  it  worse  !     And  bide  the  end  !  " 

"  Have  they  no  refuge  or  resource  ? "  cried  Scrooge. 

"  Are  there  no  prisons  ?  "  said  the  Spirit,  turning  on  him 
for  the  last  time  with  his  own  words.  "  Are  there  no  work- 
houses ? " 

The  bell  struck  twelve. 

Scrooge  looked  about  him  for  the  Ghost,  and  saw  it  not. 

As  the  last  stroke  ceased  to  vibrate,  he  remembered  the 
prediction  of  old  Jacob  Marley,  and,  lifting  up  his  eyes,  be- 
held a  solemn  Phantom,  draped  and  hooded,  coming  like  a 
mist  along  the  ground  towards  him. 


THE    LAST   OF   THE   SPIRITS. 

HE  Phantom  slowly,  gravely,  silently  ap- 
proached. When  it  came  near  him,  Scrooge 
bent  down  upon  his  knee  ;  for  in  the  very  air 
through  which  this  Spirit  moved  it  seemed  to  scatter 
gloom  and  mystery. 

It  was  shrouded  in  a  deep  black  garment,  which  con- 
cealed its  head,  its  face,  its  form,  and  left  nothing  of  it  visi- 
ble, save  one  outstretched  hand.  But  for  this  it  would  have 
been  difficult  to  detach  its  figure  from  the  night,  and 
separate  it  from  the  darkness  by  which  it  was  surrounded. 

He  felt  that  it  was  tall  and  stately,  when  it  came  beside 
him,  and  that  its  mysterious  presence  filled  him  with  a 
solemn  dread.  He  knew  no  more,  for  the  Spirit  neither 
spoke  nor  moved. 

"  I  am  in  the  presence  of  the  Ghost  of  Christmas  Yet  To 
Come  ? "  said  Scrooge. 

The  Spirit  answered  not,  but  pointed  onward  with  its 
hand. 

"  You  are  about  to  show  me  shadows  of  the  things  that 
have  not  happened,  but  will  happen  in  the  time  before  us, " 
Scrooge  pursued.     "  Is  that  so,  Spirit  ? " 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  85 

The  upper  portion  of  the  garment  was  contracted  for  an 
instant  in  its  folds,  as  if  the  Spirit  had  inclined  its  head. 
That  was  the  only  answer  he  received. 

Although  well  used  to  ghostly  company  by  this  time, 
Scrooge  feared  the  silent  shape  so  much  that  his  legs  trem- 
bled beneath  him,  and  he  found  that  he  could  hardly  stand 
when  he  prepared  to  follow  it.  The  Spirit  paused  a  mo- 
ment, as  observing  his  condition,  and  giving  him  time  to 
recover. 

But  Scrooge  was  all  the  worse  for  this.  It  thrilled  him 
with  a  vague,  uncertain  horror,  to  know  that  behind  the 
dusky  shroud  there  were  ghostly  eyes  intently  fixed  upon 
him,  while  he,  though  he  stretched  his  own  to  the  utmost, 
could  see  nothing  but  a  spectral  hand,  and  one  great  heap 
of  black. 

"  Ghost  of  the  Future  ! "  he  exclaimed,  "  I  fear  you  more 
than  any  spectre  I  have  seen.  But  as  I  know  your  purpose 
is  to  do  me  good,  and  as  I  hope  to  live  to  be  another  man 
from  what  I  was,  I  am  prepared  to  bear  you  company,  and 
do  it  with  a  thankful  heart.     Will  you  not  speak  to  me  ? " 

It  gave  him  no  reply.  The  hand  was  pointed  straight 
before  them. 

"  Lead  on  !  "  said  Scrooge.  "  Lead  on  !  The  night  is 
waning  fast,  and  it  is  precious  time  to  me,  I  know.  Lead 
on,  Spirit  !  " 

The  Phantom  moved  away  as  it  had  come  towards  him. 
Scrooge  followed  in  the  shadow  of  its  dress,  which  bore  him 
up,  he  thought,  and  carried  him  along. 

They  scarcely  seemed  to  enter  the  city ;  for  the  city 
rather  seemed  to  spring  up  about  them,  and  encompass 
them  of  its  own  act.  But  there  they  were  in  the  heart  of 
it  ;  on  'Change,  amongst  the  merchants  ;  who  hurried  up 


86  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

and  down,  and  chinked  the  money  in  their  pockets,  and 
conversed  in  groups,  and  looked  at  their  watches,  and  trifled 
thoughtfully  with  their  great  gold  seals,  and  so  forth,  as 
Scrooge  had  seen  them  often. 

The  Spirit  stopped  beside  one  little  knot  of  business  men. 
Observing  that  the  hand  was  pointed  to  them,  Scrooge 
advanced  to  listen  to  their  talk. 

"  No, "  said  a  great  fat  man  with  a  monstrous  chin,  "  I 
don't  know  much  about  it  either  way.  I  only  know  he  's 
dead." 

"  When  did  he  die  ?  "  inquired  another. 

"  Last  night,  I  believe."  « 

"  Why,  what  was  the  matter  with  him  ? "  asked  a  third, 
taking  a  vast  quantity  of  snuff  out  of  a  very  large  snuff-box. 
"  I  thought  he  'd  never  die." 

"  God  knows, "  said  the  first,  with  a  yawn. 

"  What  has  he  done  with  his  money  ? "  asked  a  red-faced 
gentleman  with  a  pendulous  excrescence  on  the  end  of  his 
nose,  that  shook  like  the  gills  of  a  turkey-cock. 

"  I  have  n't  heard,"  said  the  man  with  the  large  chin, 
yawning  again.  "  Left  it  to  his  company,  perhaps.  He 
has  n't  left  it  to  me.     That 's  all  I  know." 

This  pleasantry  was  received  with  a  general  laugh. 

"  It 's  likely  to  be  a  very  cheap  funeral, "  said  the  same 
speaker ;  "  for,  upon  my  life,  I  don't  know  of  anybody  to  go 
to  it.     Suppose  we  make  up  a  party,  and  volunteer  ? " 

"  I  don't  mind  going,  if  a  lunch  is  provided,"  observed 
the  gentleman  with  the  excrescence  on  his  nose.  "  But  I 
must  be  fed,  if  I  make  one." 

Another  laugh. 

"  Well,  I  am  the  most  disinterested  among  you,  after  all," 
said  the  first  speaker,  "  for  I  never  wear  black  gloves,  and  I 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  87 

never  eat  lunch.  But  I  '11  offer  to  go,  if  anybody  else  will. 
When  I  come  to  think  of  it,  I  'm  not  at  all  sure  that  I 
was  n't  his  most  particular  friend  ;  for  we  used  to  stop  and 
speak  whenever  we  met.     By,  by  !  " 

Speakers  and  listeners  strolled  away,  and  mixed  with 
other  groups.  Scrooge  knew  the  men,  and  looked  towards 
the  Spirit  for  an  explanation. 

The  Phantom  glided  on  into  a  street.  Its  finger  pointed 
to  two  persons  meeting.  Scrooge  listened  again,  thinking 
that  the  explanation  might  lie  here. 

He  knew  these  men,  also,  perfectly.  They  were  men  of 
business,  very  wealthy,  and  of  great  importance.  He  had 
made  a  point  always  of  standing  well  in  their  esteem  :  in  a 
business  point  of  view,  that  is ;  strictly  in  a  business  point 
of  view. 

"  How  are  you  ? "  said  one. 

"  How  are  you  ? "  returned  the  other. 

"  Well !  "  said  the  first.  "  Old  Scratch  has  got  his  own  at 
last,  hey  ? " 

"  So  I  am  told,"  returned  the  second.     "  Cold,  is  n't  it !  " 

"  Seasonable  for  Christmas  time.    You  are  not  a  skater,  I 


suppose 


"  No.    No.    Something  else  to  think  of.    Good  morning  !  " 
Not  another  word.    That  was  their  meeting,  their  conver- 
sation, and  their  parting. 

Scrooge  was  at  first  inclined  to  be  surprised  that  the 
Spirit  should  attach  importance  to  conversations  apparently 
so  trivial ;  but,  feeling  assured  that  they  must  have  some 
hidden  purpose,  he  set  himself  to  consider  what  it  was  likely 
to  be.  They  could  scarcely  be  supposed  to  have  any  bear- 
ing on  the  death  of  Jacob,  his  old  partner,  for  that  was  Past, 
and  this  Ghost's  province  was  the  Future.     Nor  could  he 


88  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

think  of  any  one  immediately  connected  with  himself  to 
whom  he  could  apply  them.  But  nothing  doubting  that  to 
whomsoever  they  applied  they  had  some  latent  moral  for 
his  own  improvement,  he  resolved  to  treasure  up  every  word 
he  heard,  and  everything  he  saw,  and  especially  to  observe 
the  shadow  of  himself  when  it  appeared.  For  he  had  an 
expectation  that  the  conduct  of  his  future  self  would  give 
him  the  clew  he  missed,  and  would  render  the  solution  of 
these  riddles  easy. 

He  looked  about  in  that  very  place  for  his  own  image  ; 
but  another  man  stood  in  his  accustomed  corner,  and,  though 
the  clock  pointed  to  his  usual  time  of  day  for  being  there, 
he  saw  no  likeness  of  himself  among  the  multitudes  that 
poured  in  through  the  porch.  It  gave  him  little  surprise, 
however ;  for  he  had  been  revolving  in  his  mind  a  change 
of  life,  and  thought  and  hoped  he  saw  his  new-born  resolu- 
tions carried  out  in  this. 

Quiet  and  dark  beside  him  stood  the  Phantom,  with  its 
outstretched  hand.  When  he  roused  himself  from  his 
thoughtful  quest,  he  fancied,  from  the  turn  of  the  hand,  and 
its  situation  in  reference  to  himself,  that  the  Unseen  Eyes 
were  looking  at  him  keenly.  It  made  him  shudder,  and 
feel  very  cold. 

They  left  the  busy  scene,  and  went  into  an  obscure  part 
of  the  town,  where  Scrooge  had  never  penetrated  before, 
although  he  recognized  its  situation  and  its  bad  repute. 
The  ways  were  foul  and  narrow  ;  the  shops  and  houses 
wretched  ;  the  people  half  naked,  drunken,  slipshod,  ugly. 
Alleys  and  archways,  like  so  many  cesspools,  disgorged  their 
offences  of  smell  and  dirt  and  life  upon  the  straggling 
streets  ;  and  the  whole  quarter  reeked  with  crime,  with  filth 
and  misery. 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  89 

Far  in  this  den  of  infamous  resort,  there  was  a  low- 
browed, beetling  shop,  below  a  pent-house  roof,  where  iron, 
old  rags,  bottles,  bones,  and  greasy  offal  were  bought.  Up- 
on the  floor  within  were  piled  up  heaps  of  rusty  keys,  nails, 
chains,  hinges,  files,  scales,  weights,  and  refuse  iron  of  all 
kinds.  Secrets  that  few  would  like  to  scrutinize  were  bred 
and  hidden  in  mountains  of  unseemly  rags,  masses  of  cor- 
rupted fat,  and  sepulchres  of  bones.  Sitting  in  among  the 
wares  he  dealt  in,  by  a  charcoal  stove,  made  of  old  bricks, 
was  a  gray-haired  rascal,  nearly  seventy  years  of  age,  who 
had  screened  himself  from  the  cold  air  without  by  a  frowzy 
curtaining  of  miscellaneous  tatters  hung  upon  a  line,  and 
smoked  his  pipe  in  all  the  luxury  of  calm  retirement. 

Scrooge  and  the  Phantom  came  into  the  presence  of  this 
man  just  as  a  woman  with  a  heavy  bundle  slunk  into  the 
shop.  But  she  had  scarcely  entered,  when  another  woman, 
similarly  laden,  came  in  too  ;  and  she  was  closely  followed 
by  a  man  in  faded  black,  who  was  no  less  startled  by  the 
sight  of  them  than  they  had  been  upon  the  recognition  of 
each  other.  After  a  short  period  of  blank  astonishment,  in 
which  the  old  man  with  the  pipe  had  joined  them,  they  all 
three  burst  into  a  laugh. 

"  Let  the  charwoman  alone  to  be  the  first ! "  cried  she 
who  had  entered  first.  "  Let  the  laundress  alone  to  be  the 
second  ;  and  let  the  undertaker's  man  alone  to  be  the  third. 
Look  here,  old  Joe,  here  's  a  chance  !  If  we  have  n't  all 
three  met  here  without  meaning  it !  " 

"  You  could  n't  have  met  in  a  better  place,"  said  old  Joe, 
removing  his  pipe  from  his  mouth.  "  Come  into  the  parlor. 
You  were  made  free  of  it  long  ago,  you  know  ;  and  the 
other  two  ain't  strangers.  Stop  till  I  shut  the  door  of  the 
shop.     Ah  !    How  it  skreeks  !    There  ain't  such  a  rusty  bit 


90  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

of  metal  in  the  place  as  its  own  hinges,  I  believe  ;  and  I  'm 
sure  there's  no  such  old  bones  here  as  mine.  Ha,  ha! 
We  're  all  suitable  to  our  calling,  we  're  well  matched. 
Come  into  the  parlor.     Come  into  the  parlor." 

The  parlor  was  the  space  behind  the  screen  of  rags. 
The  old  man  raked  the  fire  together  with  an  old  stair-rod, 
and,  having  trimmed  his  smoky  lamp  (for  it  was  night)  with 
the  stem  of  his  pipe,  put  it  into  his  mouth  again. 

While  he  did  this,  the  woman  who  had  already  spoken 
threw  her  bundle  on  the  floor,  and  sat  down  in  a  flaunting 
manner  on  a  stool,  crossing  her  elbows  on  her  knees,  and 
looking  with  a  bold  defiance  at  the  other  two. 

"  What  odds  then  ?  What  odds,  Mrs.  Dilber  ? "  said  the 
woman.  "  Every  person  has  a  right  to  take  care  of  them- 
selves.    He  .always  did  ! " 

"  That 's  true,  indeed  ! "  said  the  laundress.  "  No  man 
more  so." 

"  Why,  then,  don't  stand  staring  as  if  you  was  afraid, 
woman  ;  who 's  the  wiser  ?  We  're  not  going  to  pick  holes 
in  each  other's  coats,  I  suppose  ? " 

"  No,  indeed  ! "  said  Mrs.  Dilber  and  the  man  together. 
"We  should  hope  not." 

"  Very  well,  then  ! "  cried  the  woman.  "  That' s  enough. 
Who  's  the  worse  for  the  loss  of  a  few  things  like  these  ? 
Not  a  dead  man,  I  suppose." 

"  No,  indeed,"  said  Mrs.  Dilber,  laughing. 

"  If  he  wanted  to  keep  'em  after  he  was  dead,  a  wicked 
old  screw,"  pursued  the  woman,  "  why  was  n't  he  natural  in 
his  lifetime  ?  If  he  had  been,  he  'd  have  had  somebody 
to  look  after  him  when  he  was  struck  with  Death,  instead 
of  lying  gasping  out  his  last  there,  alone  by  himself. " 

"  It 's  the  truest  word  that  ever  was  spoke,"  said  Mrs. 
Dilber.     "  It's  a  judgment  on  him." 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  9 1 

*  I  wish  it  was  a  little  heavier  judgment,"  replied  the  wo- 
man ;  "  and  it  should  have  been,  you  may  depend  upon  it, 
if  I  could  have  laid  my  hands  on  anything  else.  Open  that 
bundle,  old  Joe,  and  let  me  know  the  value  of  it.  Speak 
out  plain.  I  'm  not  afraid  to  be  the  first,  nor  afraid  for 
them  to  see  it.  We  knew  pretty  well  that  we  were  helping 
ourselves,  before  we  met  here,  I  believe.  It's  no  sin. 
Open  the  bundle,  Joe." 

But  the  gallantry  of  her  friends  would  not  allow  of  this  ; 
and  the  man  in  faded  black,  mounting  the  breach  first,  pro- 
duced his  plunder.  It  was  not  extensive.  A  seal  or  two, 
a  pencil-case,  a  pair  of  sleeve-buttons,  and  a  brooch  of  no 
great  value,  were  all.  They  were  severally  examined  and 
appraised  by  old  Joe,  who  chalked  the  sums  he  was  disposed 
to  give  for  each  upon  the  wall*  and  added  them  up  into  a 
total,  when  he  found  that  there  was  nothing  more  to  come. 

"  That 's  your  account,  "  said  Joe,  "  and  I  would  n't  give 
another  sixpence,  if  I  was  to  be  boiled  for  not  doing  it. 
Who's   next?" 

Mrs.  Dilber  was  next.  Sheets  and  towels,  a  little  wear- 
ing apparel,  two  old-fashioned  silver  teaspoons,  a  pair  of 
sugar-tongs,  and  a  few  boots.  Her  account  was  stated  on 
the  wall  in  the  same  manner.  "  I  always  give  too  much  to 
ladies.  It's  a  weakness  of  mine,  and  that's  the  way  I 
ruin  myself,"  said  old  Joe.  "That's  your  account.  If  you 
asked  me  for  another  penny,  and  made  it  an  open  question, 
I  'd  repent  of  being  so  liberal,  and  knock  off  half  a  crown." 

"And  now  undo  my  bundle,  Joe,"  said  the  first  woman. 

Joe  went  down  on  his  knees  for  the  greater  convenience 
of  opening  it,  and,  having  unfastened  a  great  many  knots, 
dragged  out  a  large  heavy  roll  of  some  dark  stuff. 

"  What  do  you  call  this  ? "  said  Joe.     "  Bed-curtains  !  " 


92  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

"  Ah ! "  returned  the  woman,  laughing,  and  leaning  for- 
ward on  her  crossed  arms.     "  Bed-curtains ! " 

"  You  don't  mean  to  say  you  took  'em  down  rings  and 
all,  with  him  lying  there  ? "  said  Joe. 

"  Yes,  I  do,"  replied  the  woman.     "  Why  not  ? " 

"You  were  born  to  make  your  fortune,"  said  Joe,  "and 
you  '11  certainly  do  it." 

"  I  certainly  sha'  n't  hold  my  hand — when  I  can  get  any- 
thing in  it  by  reaching  it  out  —  for  the  sake  of  such  a  man 
as  He  was,  I  promise  you,  Joe,"  returned  the  woman,  coolly. 
"  Don't  drop  that  oil  upon  the  blankets,  now. " 

"  His  blankets  ?  "  asked  Joe. 

"  Whose  else's  do  you  think  ? "  replied  the  woman.  "  He 
is  n't  likely  to  take  cold  without  'em,  I  dare  say." 

"  I  hope  he  did  n't  die  of  anything  catching  ?  Eh  ? "  said 
old  Joe,  stopping  in  his  work,  and  looking  up. 

"  Don't  you  be  afraid  of  that,"  returned  the  woman.  "  I 
ain't  so  fond  of  his  company  that  I  'd  loiter  about  him  for 
such  things,  if  he  did.  Ah  !  You  may  look  through  that 
shirt  till  your  eyes  ache  ;  but  you  won't  find  a  hole  in  it, 
nor  a  threadbare  place.  It's  the  best  he  had,  and  a  fine 
one  too.  They  'd  have  wasted  it,  if  it  had  n't  been  for 
me. 

"  What  do  you  call  wasting  of  it  ? "  asked  old  Joe. 

"  Putting  it  on  him  to  be  buried  in,  to  be  sure,"  replied 
the  woman,  with  a  laugh.  "  Somebody  was  fool  enough  to 
do  it,  but  I  took  it  off  again.  If  calico  ain't  good  enough 
for  such  a  purpose,  it  is  n't  good  enough  for  anything.  It 's 
quite  as  becoming  to  the  body.  He  can't  look  uglier  than 
he  did  in  that  one." 

Scrooge  listened  to  this  dialogue  in  horror.  As  they  sat 
grouped  about  their  spoil,  in  the  scanty  light  afforded  by 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  93 

the  old  man's  lamp,  he  viewed  them  with  a  detestation  and 
disgust  which  could  hardly  have  been  greater  though  they 
had  been  obscene  demons,  marketing  the  corpse  itself. 

"  Ha,  ha  ! "  laughed  the  same  woman,  when  old  Joe,  pro- 
ducing a  flannel  bag  with  money  in  it,  told  out  their  several 
gains  upon  the  ground.  "  This  is  the  end  of  it,  you  see ! 
He  frightened  every  one  away  from  him  when  he  was  alive, 
to  profit  us  when  he  was  dead  !     Ha,  ha,  ha  ! " 

"  Spirit ! "  said  Scrooge,  shuddering  from  head  to  foot, 
"I  see,  I  see.  The  case  of  this  unhappy  man  might  be 
my  own.  My  life  tends  that  way  now.  Merciful  Heaven, 
what  is  this  ! " 

He  recoiled  in  terror,  for  the  scene  had  changed,  and 
now  he  almost  touched  a  bed  —  a  bare,  uncurtained  bed  — 
on  which,  beneath  a  ragged  sheet,  there  lay  a  something 
covered  up,  which,  though  it  was  dumb,  announced  itself  in 
awful  language. 

The  room  was  very  dark,  too  dark  to  be  observed  with 
any  accuracy,  though  Scrooge  glanced  round  it  in  obedi- 
ence to  a  secret  impulse,  anxious  to  know  what  kind  of 
room  it  was.  A  pale  light,  rising  in  the  outer  air,  fell 
straight  upon  the  bed  ;  and  on  it,  plundered  and  bereft, 
unwatched,  unwept,  uncared  for,  was  the  body  of  this  man. 

Scrooge  glanced  towards  the  Phantom.  Its  steady  hand 
was  pointed  to  the  head.  The  cover  was  so  carelessly 
adjusted,  that  the  slightest  raising  of  it,  the  motion  of  a 
finger  upon  Scrooge's  part,  would  have  disclosed  the  face. 
He  thought  of  it,  felt  how  easy  it  would  be  to  do,  and 
longed  to  do  it,  but  had  no  more  power  to  withdraw  the 
veil  than  to  dismiss  the  spectre  at  his  side. 

O  cold,  cold,  rigid,  dreadful  Death,  set  up  thine  altar  here, 
and  dress  it  with  such  terrors  as  thou  hast  at  thy  command  ; 


94  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

for  this  is  thy  dominion  !  But  of  the  loved,  revered,  and  hon- 
ored head,  thou  canst  not  turn  one  hair  to  thy  dread  pur- 
poses, or  make  one  feature  odious.  It  is  not  that  the  hand 
is  heavy,  and  will  fall  down  when  released ;  it  is  not  that  the 
heart  and  pulse  are  still  ;  but  that  the  hand  was  open,  gen- 
erous, and  true  ;  the  heart  brave,  warm,  and  tender ;  and 
the  pulse  a  man's.  Strike,  Shadow,  strike  !  And  see  his 
good  deeds  springing  from  the  wound,  to  sow  the  world 
with  life  immortal ! 

No  voice  pronounced  these  words  in  Scrooge's  ears,  and 
yet  he  heard  them  when  he  looked  upon  the  bed.  He 
thought,  if  this  man  could  be  raised  up  now,  what  would 
be  his  foremost  thoughts  ?  Avarice,  hard-dealing,  griping 
cares  ?    They  have  brought  him  to  a  rich  end  truly  ! 

He  lay  in  the  dark,  empty  house,  with  not  a  man,  a 
woman,  or  a  child  to  say,  he  was  kind  to  me  in  this  or  that, 
and  for  the  memory  of  one  kind  word  I  will  be  kind  to  him. 
A  cat  was  tearing  at  the  door,  and  there  was  a  sound  of 
gnawing  rats  beneath  the  hearth-stone.  What  they  wanted 
in  the  room  of  death,  and  why  they  were  so  restless  and 
disturbed,  Scrooge  did  not  dare  to  think. 

"  Spirit ! "  he  said,  "  this  is  a  fearful  place.  In  leaving  it, 
I  shall  not  leave  its  lesson,  trust  me.     Let  us  go  !  " 

Still  the  Ghost  pointed  with  an  unmoved  finger  to  the 
head. 

"  I  understand  you,"  Scrooge  returned,  "  and  I  would  do 
it  if  I  could.  But  I  have  not  the  power,  Spirit.  I  have  not 
the  power." 

Again  it  seemed  to  look  upon  him. 

"  If  there  is  any  person  in  the  town,  who  feels  emotion 
caused  by  this  man's  death,"  said  Scrooge,  quite  agonized, 
"  show  that  person  to  me,  Spirit,  I  beseech  you ! " 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  95 

The  Phantom  spread  its  dark  robe  before  him  for  a  mo- 
ment, like  a  wing  ;  and,  withdrawing  it,  revealed  a  room  by 
daylight,  where  a  mother  and  her  children  were. 

She  was  expecting  some  one,  and  with  anxious  eagerness  ; 
for  she  walked  up  and  down  the  room  ;  started  at  every 
sound  ;  looked  out  from  the  window  ;  glanced  at  the  clock  ; 
tried,  but  in  vain,  to  work  with  her  needle  ;  and  could 
hardly  bear  the  voices  of  her  children  in  their  play. 

At  length  the  long-expected  knock  was  heard.  She  hur- 
ried to  the  door  and  met  her  husband  ;  a  man  whose  face 
was  careworn  and  depressed,  though  he  was  young.  There 
was  a  remarkable  expression  in  it  now  ;  a  kind  of  serious 
delight  of  which  he  felt  ashamed,  and  which  he  struggled 
to  repress. 

He  sat  down  to  the  dinner  that  had  been  hoarding  for 
him  by  the  fire,  and  when  she  asked  him  faintly  what  news 
(which  was  not  until  after  a  long  silence),  he  appeared  em- 
barrassed how  to  answer. 

"  Is  it  good,"  she  said,  "  or  bad  ? "  —  to  help  him. 

"  Bad,"  he  answered. 

"  We  are  quite  ruined  ? " 

"  No.     There  is  hope  yet,  Caroline." 

"  If  he  relents,"  she  said,  amazed,  "  there  is  !  Nothing  is 
past  hope,  if  such  a  miracle  has  happened." 

"  He  is  past  relenting,"  said  her  husband.  "  He  is 
dead." 

She  was  a  mild  and  patient  creature,  if  her  face  spoke 
truth  ;  but  she  was  thankful  in  her  soul  to  hear  it,  and  she 
said  so,  with  clasped  hands.  She  prayed  forgiveness  the 
next  moment,  and  was  sorry ;  but  the  first  was  the  emotion 
of  her  heart. 

"  What  the  half-drunken  woman,  whom  I  told  you  of  last 


g6  A   CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

night,  said  to  me,  when  I  tried  to  see  him  and  obtain  a 
week's  delay,  and  what  I  thought  was  a  mere  excuse  to 
avoid  me,  turns  out  to  have  been  quite  true.  He  was  not 
only  very  ill,  but  dying,  then." 

"To  whom  will  our  debt  be  transferred  ?" 

"  I  don't  know.  But  before  that  time  we  shall  be  ready 
with  the  money  ;  and,  even  though  we  were  not,  it  would  be 
bad  fortune  indeed  to  find  so  merciless  a  creditor  in  his  suc- 
cessor. We  may  sleep  to  night  with  light  hearts,  Caro- 
line!" 

Yes.  Soften  it  as  they  would,  their  hearts  were  lighter. 
The  children's  faces,  hushed  and  clustered  round  to  hear 
what  they  so  little  understood,  were  brighter  ;  and  it  was  a 
happier  house  for  this  man's  death  !  The  only  emotion  that 
the  Ghost  could  show  him  caused  by  the  event  was  one  of 
pleasure. 

"  Let  me  see  some  tenderness  connected  with  a  death," 
said  Scrooge,  "  or  that  dark  chamber,  Spirit,  which  we  left 
just  now,  will  be  forever  present  to  me." 

The  Ghost  conducted  him  through  several  streets  famil- 
iar to  his  feet ;  and,  as  they  went  along,  Scrooge  looked 
here  and  there  to  find  himself,  but  nowhere  was  he  to  be 
seen.  They  entered  poor  Bob  Cratchit's  house,  the  dwell- 
ing he  had  visited  before,  and  found  the  mother  and  the 
children  seated  round  the  fire. 

Quiet.  Very  quiet.  The  noisy  little  Cratchits  were  as 
still  as  statues  in  one  corner,  and  sat  looking  up  at  Peter, 
who  had  a  book  before  him.  The  mother  and  her  daughters 
were  engaged  in  sewing.     But  surely  they  were  very  quiet ! 

"'And  he  took  a  child,  and  set  him  in  the  midst  of 
them.' " 

Where  had  Scrooge  heard  those  words  ?     He  had  not 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  97 

dreamed  them.  The  boy  must  have  read  them  out,  as  he 
and  the  Spirit  crossed  the  threshold.  Why  did  he  not  go 
on  ? 

The  mother  laid  her  work  upon  the  table,  and  put  her 
hand  up  to  her  face. 

"The  color  hurts  my  eyes,"  she  said. 

The  color  ?     Ah,  poor  Tiny  Tim  ! 

"They're  better  now  again,"  said  Cratchit's  wife.  "It 
makes  them  weak  by  candle-light  ;  and  I  would  n't  show 
weak  eyes  to  your  father  when  he  comes  home,  for  the 
world.     It  must  be  near  his  time." 

"  Past  it,  rather,"  Peter  answered,  shutting  up  his  book. 
"  But  I  think  he  has  walked  a  little  slower  than  he  used, 
these  few  last  evenings,  mother." 

They  were  very  quiet  again.  At  last,  she  said,  and  in  a 
steady,  cheerful  voice,  that  only  faltered  once,  — 

"  I  have  known  him  walk  with  —  I  have  known  him  walk 
with  Tiny  Tim  upon  his  shoulder  very  fast  indeed." 

"  And  so  have  I,"  cried  Peter.     "  Often." 

"  And  so  have  I,"  exclaimed  another.     So  had  all. 

"  But  he  was  very  light  to  carry,"  she  resumed,  intent 
upon  her  work,  "and  his  father  loved  him  so  that  it  was  no 
trouble,  no  trouble.  And  there  is  your  father  at  the 
door !  " 

She  hurried  out  to  meet  him  ;  and  little  Bob  in  his  com- 
forter —  he  had  need  of  it,  poor  fellow  !  —  came  in.  His  tea 
was  ready  for  him  on  the  hob,  and  they  all  tried  who  should 
help  him  to  it  most.  Then  the  two  young  Cratchits  got  upon 
his  knees,  and  laid,  each  child,  a  little  cheek  against  his  face, 
as  if  they  said,  "  Don't  mind  it,  father.     Don't  be  grieved  !  " 

Bob  was  very  cheerful  with  them,  and  spoke  pleasantly 
to  all  the  family.  He  looked  at  the  work  upon  the  table, 
7 


98  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

and  praised  the  industry  and  speed  of  Mrs.  Cratchit  and 
the  girls.    They  would  be  done  long  before  Sunday,  he  said. 

"  Sunday  !  You  went  to-day,  then,  Robert  ? "  said  his 
wife. 

"  Yes,  my  dear,"  returned  Bob.  "  I  wish  you  could  have 
gone.  It  would  have  done  you  good  to  see  how  green  a 
place  it  is.  But  you  '11  see  it  often.  I  promised  him  that  I 
would  walk  there  on  a  Sunday.  My  little,  little  child !  " 
cried  Bob.     "  My  little  child  !  " 

He  broke  down  all  at  once.  He  could  n't  help  it.  If 
he  could  have  helped  it,  he  and  his  child  would  have  been 
farther  apart  perhaps  than  they  were. 

He  left  the  room,  and  went  up  stairs  into  the  room  above, 
which  was  lighted  cheerfully,  and  hung  with  Christmas. 
There  was  a  chair  set  close  beside  the  child,  and  there  were 
signs  of  some  one  having  been  there  lately.  Poor  Bob  sat 
down  in  it,  and  when  he  had  thought  a  little,  and  composed 
himself,  he  kissed  the  little  face.  He  was  reconciled  to 
what  had  happened,  and  went  down  again  quite  happy. 

They  drew  about  the  fire  and  talked  ;  the  girls  and 
mother  working  still.  Bob  told  them  of  the  extraordinary 
kindness  of  Mr.  Scrooge's  nephew,  whom  he  had  scarcely 
seen  but  once,  and  who,  meeting  him  in  the  street  that  day, 
and  seeing  that  he  looked  a  little  —  "just  a  little  down,  you 
know,"  said  Bob,  inquired  what  had  happened  to  distress 
him.  "On  which,"  said  Bob,  "for  he  is  the  pleasantest- 
spoken  gentleman  you  ever  heard,  I  told  him.  '  I  am 
heartily  sorry  for  it,  Mr.  Cratchit,'  he  said,  '  and  heartily 
sorry  for  your  good  wife.'  By  the  by,  how  he  ever  knew 
that  I  don't  know." 

"  Knew  what,  my  dear  ?  " 

"  Why,  that  you  were  a  good  wife,"  replied  Bob. 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  99 

"  Everybody  knows  that ! "  said   Peter. 

"  Very  well  observed,  my  boy  ! "  cried  Bob.  "  I  hope 
they  do.  ■  Heartily  sorry,'  he  said,  '  for  your  good  wife.  If 
I  can  be  of  service  to  you  in  any  way,'  he  said,  giving  me 
his  card,  '  that 's  where  I  live.  Pray  come  to  me.'  Now  it 
was  n't,"  cried  Bob,  "  for  the  sake  of  anything  he  might  be 
able  to  do  for  us,  so  much  as  for  his  kind  way,  that  this  was 
quite  delightful.  It  really  seemed  as  if  he  had  known  our 
Tiny  Tim,  and  felt  with  us." 

"  I  'm  sure  he 's  a  good  soul,"  said  Mrs.  Cratchit. 

"  You  would  be  sure  of  it,  my  dear,"  returned  Bob,  "  if  you 
saw  and  spoke  to  him.  I  should  n't  be  at  all  surprised,  — 
mark  what  I  say  !  —  if  he  got  Peter  a  better  situation." 

"  Only  hear  that,  Peter,"  said  Mrs.  Cratchit. 

"  And  then,"  cried  one  of  the  girls,  "  Peter  will  be  keep- 
ing company  with  some  one,  and  setting  up  for  himself. " 

"  Get  along  with  ypu  !  "  retorted  Peter,  grinning. 

"  It 's  just  as  likely  as  not,"  said  Bob,  "  one  of  these  days  ; 
though  there  is  plenty  of  time  for  that,  my  dear.  But  how- 
ever and  whenever  we  part  from  one  another,  I  am  sure  we 
shall  none  of  us  forget  poor  Tiny  Tim,  — ■  shall  we  ?  or  this 
first  parting  that  there  was  among  us  ?  " 

"  Never,  father!  "  cried  they  all. 

" And  I  know,"  said  Bob,  —  "I  know,  my  dears,  that 
when  we  recollect  how  patient  and  how  mild  he  was,  al- 
though he  was  a  little,  little  child,  we  shall  not  quarrel  easi- 
ly among  ourselves,  and  forget  poor  Tiny  Tim  in  doing  it." 

"  No,  never,  father  !  "  they  all  cried  again. 

"  I  am  very  happy,"  said  little  Bob,  —  "I  am  very 
happy !  " 

Mrs.  Cratchit  kissed  him,  his  daughters  kissed  him,  the 
two  young  Cratchits   kissed  him,  and   Peter  and  himself 


IOO  A   CHRISTMAS   CAROL. 

shook  hands.  Spirit  of  Tiny  Tim,  thy  childish  essence  was 
from  God  ! 

"  Spectre,"  said  Scrooge,  "  something  informs  me  that 
our  parting  moment  is  at  hand.  I  know  it,  but  I  know  not 
how.  Tell  me  what  man  that  was  whom  we  saw  lying 
dead  ? " 

The  Ghost  of  Christmas  Yet  To  Come  conveyed  him,  as 
before,  —  though  at  a  different  time,  he  thought  ;  indeed, 
there  seemed  no  order  in  these  latter  visions,  save  that  they 
were  in  the  Future,  —  into  the  resorts  of  business  men,  but 
showed  him  not  himself.  Indeed,  the  Spirit  did  not  stay  for 
anything,  but  went  straight  on,  as  to  the  end  just  now  de- 
sired, until  besought  by  Scrooge  to  tarry  for  a  moment. 

"This  court,"  said  Scrooge,  "through  which  we  hurry 
now,  is  where  my  place  of  occupation  is  and  has  been  for  a 
length  of  time.  I  see  the  house.  Let  me  behold  what  I 
shall  be  in  days  to  come." 

The  Spirit  stopped  ;  the  hand  was  pointed  elsewhere. 

"  The  house  is  yonder,"  Scrooge  exclaimed.  "  Why  do 
you  point  away  ?  " 

The  inexorable  finger  underwent  no  change. 

Scrooge  hastened  to  the  window  of  his  office,  and  looked 
in.  It  was  an  office  still,  but  not  his.  The  furniture  was 
not  the  same,  and  the  figure  in  the  chair  was  not  himself. 
The  Phantom  pointed  as  before. 

He  joined  it  once  again,  and,  wondering  why  and  whither 
he  had  gone,  accompanied  it  until  they  reached  an  iron 
gate.     He  paused  to  look  round  before  entering. 

A  churchyard.  Here  then  the  wretched  man  whose  name 
he  had  now  to  learn  lay  underneath  the  ground.  It  was  a 
worthy  place.  Walled  in  by  houses  ;  overrun  by  grass  and 
weeds,  the  growth  of  vegetation's  death,  not  life  ;  choked  up 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  io1 

with    too    much   burying  ;  fat  with   repleted   appetite.     A 
worthy  place ! 

The  Spirit  stood  among  the  graves,  and  pointed  down  to 
One.  He  advanced  towards  it  trembling.  The  Phantom 
was  exactly  as  it  had  been,  but  he  dreaded  that  he  saw  new 
meaning  in  its  solemn  shape. 

"  Before  I  draw  nearer  to  that  stone  to  which  you  point," 
said  Scrooge,  "answer  me  one  question.  Are  these  the 
shadows  of  the  things  that  Will  be,  or  are  they  shadows  of 
the  things  that  May  be  only  ? " 

Still  the  Ghost  pointed  downward  to  the  grave  by  which 
it  stood. 

"  Men's  courses  will  foreshadow  certain  ends  to  which,  if 
persevered  in,  they  must  lead,"  said  Scrooge.     "  But  if  the 
courses  be  departed  from,  the  ends  will  change.     Say  it  is 
thus  with  what  you  show  me  !  " 
The  Spirit  was  immovable  as  ever. 

Scrooge  crept  towards  it,  trembling  as  he  went ;  and,  fol- 
lowing' the  finger,  read  upon  the  stone  of  the  neglected 
grave  his  own  name,  Ebenezer  Scrooge. 

"  Am  /  that  man  who  lay  upon  the  bed  ?  "  he  cried,  upon 
his  knees. 

The  finger  pointed  from  the  grave  to  him,  and  back  again. 
■  No,  Spirit !     O  no,  no  !  " 
The  finger  still  was  there. 

"  Spirit !  "  he  cried,  tight  clutching  at  its  robe,  "  hear  me  ! 
I  am  not  the  man  I  was.  I  will  not  be  the  man  I  must 
have  been  but  for  this  intercourse.  Why  show  me  this,  if  I 
am  past  all  hope  ! " 

For  the  first  time  the  hand  appeared  to  shake. 
"  Good  Spirit,"  he  pursued,  as  down  upon  the  ground  he 
fell  before  it,  "  your  nature  intercedes  for  me,  and  pities  me, 


102 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 


Assure  me  that  I  yet  may  change  these  shadows  you  have 
shown  me,  by  an  altered  life." 

The  kind  hand  trembled. 

"  I  will  honor  Christmas  in  my  heart,  and  try  to  keep  it 
all  the  year.  I  will  live  in  the  Past,  the  Present,  and  the 
Future.  The  Spirits  of  all  Three  shall  strive  within  me.  I 
will  not  shut  out  the  lessons  that  they  teach.  O  tell  me  I 
may  sponge  away  the  writing  on  this  stone  !  " 

In  his  agony  he  caught  the  spectral  hand.  It  sought  to 
free  itself,  but  he  was  strong  in  his  entreaty,  and  detained 
it.     The  Spirit,  stronger  yet,  repulsed  him. 

Holding  up  his  hands  in  a  last  prayer  to  have  his  fate 
reversed,  he  saw  an  alteration  in  the  Phantom's  hood  and 
dress.  It  shrunk,  collapsed,  and  dwindled  down  into  a  bed- 
post. 


THE     END     OF     IT. 

ES !  and  the  bedpost  was  his  own.  The 
bed  was  his  own,  the  room  was  his  own. 
Best  and  happiest  of  all,  the  Time  before  him  was  his  own, 
to  make  amends  in  ! 

"  I  will  live  in  the  Past,  the  Present,  and  the  Future !  " 
Scrooge  repeated,  as  he  scrambled  out  of  bed.  "  The  Spir- 
its of  all  Three  shall  strive  within  me.  O  Jacob  Marley ! 
Heaven  and  the  Christmas  Time  be  praised  for  this  !  I  say 
it  on  my  knees,  old  Jacob  ;  on  my  knees  !  " 

He  was  so  fluttered  and  so  glowing  with  his  good  inten- 
tions, that  his  broken  voice  would  scarcely  answer  to  his  call. 
He  had  been  sobbing  violently  in  his  conflict  with  the  Spir- 
it, and  his  face  was  wet  with  tears. 

•  They  are  not  torn  down,"  cried  Scrooge,  folding  one  of 
his  bed-curtains  in  his  arms,  —  "  they  are  not  torn  down, 
rings  and  all.  They  are  here,  —  I  am  here,  —  the  shadows 
of  the  things  that  would  have  been  may  be  dispelled.  They 
will  be.     I  know  they  will ! " 

His  hands  were  busy  with  his  garments  all  this  time  ; 
turning  them  inside  out,  putting  them  on  upside  down,  tear- 


104  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

ing  them,  mislaying  them,  making  them  parties  to  every 
kind  of  extravagance. 

"  I  don't  know  what  to  do  !  "  cried  Scrooge,  laughing  and 
crying  in  the  same  breath  ;  and  making  a  perfect  Laocoon 
of  himself  with  his  stockings.  "  I  am  as  light  as  a  feather,  I 
am  as  happy  as  an  angel,  I  am  as  merry  as  a  school-boy. 
I  am  as  giddy  as  a  drunken  man.  A  Merry  Christmas  to 
everybody  !  A  Happy  New  Year  to  all  the  world  !  Hallo 
here!    Whoop!    Hallo!" 

He  had  frisked  into  the  sitting-room,  and  was  now  stand- 
ing there,  perfectly  winded. 

"  There 's  the  saucepan  that  the  gruel  was  in  ! "  cried 
Scrooge,  starting  off  again,  and  going  round  the  fireplace. 
"  There  's  the  door  by  which  the  Ghost  of  Jacob  Marley 
entered !  There  's  the  corner  where  the  Ghost  of  Christ- 
mas Present  sat !  There 's  the  window  where  I  saw  the 
wandering  Spirits  !  It 's  all  right,  it 's  all  true,  it  all  hap- 
pened.    Ha,  ha,  ha ! " 

Really,  for  a  man  who  had  been  out  of  practice  for  so 
many  years,  it  was  a  splendid  laugh,  a  most  illustrious  laugh. 
The  father  of  a  long,  long  line  of  brilliant  laughs  ! 

"  I  don't  know  what  day  of  the  month  it  is,"  said 
Scrooge,  "  I  don't  know  how  long  I  have  been  among  the 
Spirits.  I  don't  know  anything.  I  'm  quite  a  baby.  Never 
mind.  I  don't  care.  I  'd  rather  be  a  baby.  Hallo ! 
Whoop!     Hallo  here!" 

He  was  checked  in  his  transports  by  the  churches  ringing 
out  the  lustiest  peals  he  had  ever  heard.  Clash,  clash, 
hammer ;  ding,  dong,  bell.  Bell,  dong,  ding ;  hammer, 
clang,  clash  !     O,  glorious,  glorious  ! 

Running  to  the  window,  he  opened  it,  and  put  out  his 
head.     No  fog,  no  mist ;  clear,  bright,  jovial,  stirring  cold  ; 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  105 

cold,  piping  for  the  blood  to  dance  to  ;  Golden  sunlight  ; 
Heavenly  sky  ;  sweet,  fresh  air  ;  merry  bells.  O,  glorious, 
glorious ! 

"  What 's  to-day  ?  "  cried  Scrooge,  calling  downward  to  a 
boy  in  Sunday  clothes,  who  perhaps  had  loitered  in  to  look 
about  him. 

"  Eh  ?  "  returned  the  boy,  with  all  his  might  of  wonder. 

"  What 's  to-day,  my  fine  fellow  ? "  said  Scrooge. 

"  To-day  !  "  replied  the  boy.     "  Why,  Christmas  Day." 

"  It 's  Christmas  Day  ! "  said  Scrooge  to  himself.  "  I 
have  n't  missed  it.  The  Spirits  have  done  it  all  in  one 
night.  They  can  do  anything  they  like.  Of  course  they 
can.     Of  course  they  can.     Hallo,  my  fine  fellow  ! " 

"  Hallo  !  "  returned  the  boy. 

"  Do  you  know  the  Poulterer's,  in  the  next  street  but  one, 
at  the  corner  ?  "  Scrooge  inquired. 

"  I  should  hope  I  did,"  replied  the  lad. 
"  An  intelligent    boy  ! "  said  Scrooge.      "  A  remarkable 
boy  !     Do  you  know  whether  they  've  sold  the  prize  Turkey 
that  was  hanging  up  there  ?  —  Not  the  little  prize  Turkey, 
the  big  one  ? " 

"  What,  the  one  as  big  as  me  ?  "  returned  the  boy. 

" What  a  delightful  boy!"  said  Scrooge.  "It's  a  pleas- 
ure to  talk  to  him.     Yes,  my  buck  ! " 

"  It 's  hanging  there  now,"  replied  the  boy. 

"  Is  it  ?  "  said  Scrooge.     "  Go  and  buy  it." 

"  Walk-ER  ! "  exclaimed  the  boy. 

"  No,  no,  "  said  Scrooge,  "  I  am  in  earnest.  Go  and  buy 
it,  and  tell  'em  to  bring  it  here,  that  I  may  give  them  the 
directions  where  to  take  it.  Come  back  with  the  man,  and 
I  '11  give  you  a  shilling.  Come  back  with  him  in  less  than 
five  minutes,  and  I  '11  give  you  half  a  crown  ! " 


106  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

The  boy  was  off  like  a  shot.  He  must  have  had  a  steady 
hand  at  a  trigger  who  could  have  got  a  shot  off  half  so  fast. 

"  I  '11  send  it  to  Bob  Cratchit's,  "  whispered  Scrooge*  rub- 
bing his  hands,  and  splitting  with  a  laugh.  "  He  sha'  n't 
know  who  sends  it.  It 's  twice  the  size  of  Tiny  Tim.  Joe 
Miller  never  made  such  a  joke  as  sending  it  to  Bob's  will  be ! " 

The  hand  in  which  he  wrote  the  address  was  not  a  steady 
one,  but  write  it  he  did,  somehow,  and  went  down  stairs  to 
open  the  street  door,  ready  for  the  coming  of  the  poulterer 's 
man.  As  he  stood  there,  waiting  his  arrival,  the  knocker 
caught  his  eye. 

"  I  shall  love  it  as  long  as  I  live  ! "  cried  Scrooge,  patting 
it  with  his  hand.  "I  scarcely  ever  looked  at  it  before. 
What  an  honest  expression  it  has  in  its  face  !  It 's  a  won- 
derful knocker  !  —  Here 's  the  Turkey.  Hallo  !  Whoop  ! 
How  are  you  !     Merry  Christmas  ! " 

It  was  a  Turkey  !  He  never  could  have  stood  upon  his 
legs,  that  bird.  He  would  have  snapped  'em  short  off  in  a 
minute,  like  sticks  of  sealing-wax: 

"  Why,  it 's  impossible  to  carry  that  to  Camden  Town," 
said  Scrooge.     "  You  must  have  a  cab." 

The  chuckle  with  which  he  said  this,  and  the  chuckle 
with  which  he  paid  for  the  Turkey,  and  the  chuckle  with 
which  he  paid  for  the  cab,  and  the  chuckle  with  which  he 
recompensed  the  boy,  were  only  to  be  exceeded  by  the 
chuckle  with  which  he  sat  down  breathless  in  his  chair 
again,  and  chuckled  till  he  cried. 

Shaving  was  not  an  easy  task,  for  his  hand  continued  to 
shake  very  much ;  and  shaving  requires  attention,  even 
when  you  don't  dance  while  you  are  at  it.  But  if  he  had 
cut  the  end  of  his  nose  off,  he  would  have  put  a  piece  of 
sticking-plaster  over  it,  and  been  quite  satisfied. 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  IO7 

He  dressed  himself  "  all  in  his  best,"  and  at  last  got  out 
into  the  streets.  The  people  were  by  this  time  pouring 
forth,  as  he  had  seen  them  with  the  Ghost  of  Christmas 
Present  ;  and,  walking  with  his  hands  behind  him,  Scrooge 
regarded  every  one  with  a  delighted  smile.  He  looked  so 
irresistibly  pleasant,  in  a  word,  that  three  or  four  good-hu- 
mored fellows  said,  "  Good  morning,  sir  !  A  merry  Christ- 
mas to  you  ! "  And  Scrooge  said  often  afterwards,  that,  of 
all  the  blithe  sounds  he  had  ever  heard,  those  were  the 
blithest  in  his  ears. 

He  had  not  gone  far,  when  coming  on  towards  him  he 
beheld  the  portly  gentleman  who  had  walked  into  his 
counting-house  the  day  before,  and  said,  "  Scrooge  and 
Marley's,  I  believe  ? "  It  sent  a  pang  across  his  heart  to 
think  how  this  old  gentleman  would  look  upon  him  when 
they  met ;  but  he  knew  what  path  lay  straight  before  him, 
and  he  took  it. 

"  My  dear  sir,"  said  Scrooge,  quickening  his  pace,  and 
taking  the  old  gentleman  by  both  his  hands.  "  How  do  you 
do  ?  I  hope  you  succeeded  yesterday.  It  was  very  kind 
of  you.     A  Merry  Christmas  to  you,  sir  !  " 

"  Mr.  Scrooge  ?  " 

"  Yes,  "  said  Scrooge.  "  That  is  my  name,  and  I  fear  it 
may  not  be  pleasant  to  you.  Allow  me  to  ask  your  pardon. 
And  will  you  have  the  goodness ! "  —  here  Scrooge  whis- 
pered in  his  ear. 

"  Lord  bless  me  !  "  cried  the  gentleman,  as  if  his  breath 
were  taken  away.  "  My  dear  Mr.  Scrooge,  are  you  seri- 
ous ? " 

"  If  you  please,"  said  Scrooge.  "  Not  a  farthing  less. 
A  great  many  back-payments  are  included  in  it,  I  assure 
you.     Will  you  do  me  that  favor  ? " 


108  A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 

"  My  dear  sir,"  said  the  other,  shaking  hands  with  him. 
"  I  don't  know  what  to  say  to  such  munifi —  " 

"  Don't  say  anything,  please,"  retorted  Scrooge.  M  Come 
and  see  me.     Will  you  come  and  see  me  ? " 

"  I  will !  "  cried  the  old  gentleman.  And  it  was  clear  he 
meant  to  do  it. 

"  Thank  'ee,"  said  Scrooge.  "  I  am  much  obliged  to  you. 
I  thank  you  fifty  times.     Bless  you  !  " 

He  went  to  church,  and  walked  about  the  streets,  and 
watched  the  people  hurrying  to  and  fro,  and  patted  the  chil- 
dren on  the  head,  and  questioned  beggars,  and  looked  down 
into  the  kitchens  of  houses,  and  up  to  the  windows,  and 
found  that  everything  could  yield  him  pleasure.  He  had 
never  dreamed  that  any  walk  —  that  anything  —  could  give 
him  so  much  happiness.  In  the  afternoon,  he  turned  his 
steps  towards  his  nephew's  house. 

He  passed  the  door  a  dozen  times,  before  he  had  the 
courage  to  go  up  and  knock.  But  he  made  a  dash,  and 
did  it. 

"  Is  your  master  at  home,  my  dear.  ?  "  said  Scrooge  to  the 
girl.     Nice  girl !     Very. 

"  Yes,  sir." 

"  Where  is  he,  my  love  ?  "  said  Scrooge. 

"  He  's  in  the  dining-room,  sir,  along  with  mistress.  I  '11 
show  you  up  stairs,  if  you  please." 

"  Thank  'ee.  He  knows  me,"  said  Scrooge,  with  his  hand 
already  on  the  dining-room  lock.  "  I  '11  go  in  here,  my 
dear." 

He  turned  it  gently,  and  sidled  his  face  in,  round  the  door. 
They  were  looking  at  the  table  ( which  was  spread  out  in 
great  array) ;  for  these  young  housekeepers  are  always  ner- 
vous on  such  points,  and  like  to  see  that  everything  is  right. 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL.  IOO, 

"  Fred  !  "  said  Scrooge. 

Dear  heart  alive,  how  his  niece  by  marriage  started ! 
Scrooge  had  forgotten  for  the  moment  about  her  sitting  in 
the  corner  with  the  footstool,  or  he  would  n't  have  done  it 
on  any  account. 

"  Why,  bless  my  soul !  "  cried  Fred,  "  who 's  that  ?  " 

"  It 's  I.  Your  uncle  Scrooge.  I  have  come  to  dinner. 
Will  you  let  me  in,  Fred  ?" 

Let  him  in  !  It  is  a  mercy  he  did  n't  shake  his  arm  off. 
He  was  at  home  in  five  minutes.  Nothing  could  be  heartier. 
His  niece  looked  just  the  same.  So  did  Topper  when  he 
came.  So  did  the  plump  sister  when  she  came.  So  did 
every  one  when  tluy  came.  Wonderful  party,  wonderful 
games,  wonderful  unanimity,  won-der-ful  happiness ! 

But  he  was  early  at  the  office  next  morning.  O,  he  was 
early  there.  If  he  could  only  be  there  first,  and  catch  Bob 
Cratchit  coming  late  !  That  was  the  thing  he  had  set  his 
heart  upon. 

And  he  did  it ;  yes,  he  did !  The  clock  struck  nine.  No 
Bob.  A  quarter  past.  No  Bob.  He  was  full  eighteen  min- 
utes and  a  half  behind  his  time.  Scrooge  sat  with  his  door 
wide  open,  that  he  might  see  him  come  into  the  Tank. 

His  hat  was  off  before  he  opened  the  door,  his  comforter 
too.  He  was  on  his  stool  in  a  jiffy,  driving  away  with  his 
pen,  as  if  he  were  trying  to  overtake  nine  o'clock. 

"  Hallo  !  "  growled  Scrooge,  in  his  accustomed  voice,  as 
near  as  he  could  feign  it.  "  What  do  you  mean  by  coming 
here  at  this  time  of  day  ? " 

"  I  am  very  sorry,  sir,"  said  Bob.    "  I  am  behind  my  time." 

"  You  are  !  "  repeated  Scrooge.  "  Yes.  I  think  you  are. 
Step  this  way,  sir,  if  you  please." 

"  It 's  only  once  a  year,  sir,"  pleaded  Bob,  appearing  from 


IIO  A   CHRISTMAS   CAROL. 

the  Tank.    "  It  shall  not  be  repeated.    I  was  making  rather 
merry  yesterday,  sir." 

"  Now,  I  '11  tell  you  what,  my  friend,"  said  Scrooge,  "  I  am 
not  going  to  stand  this  sort  of  thing  any  longer.  And 
therefore,"  he  continued,  leaping  from  his  stool,  and  giving 
Bob  such  a  dig  in  the  waistcoat  that  he  staggered  back 
into  the  Tank  again,  —  "  and  therefore  I  am  about  to  raise 
your  salary ! " 

Bob  trembled,  and  got  a  little  nearer  to  the  ruler.  He 
had  a  momentary  idea  of  knocking  Scrooge  down  with  it, 
holding  him,  and  calling  to  the  people  in  the  court  for  help 
and  a  strait  waistcoat. 

"  A  Merry  Christmas,  Bob  ! "  said  Scrooge,  with  an  ear- 
nestness that  could  not  be  mistaken,  as  he  clapped  him  on 
the  back.  "A  merrier  Christmas,  Bob,  my  good  fellow, 
than  I  have  given  you  for  many  a  year  !  I  '11  raise  your  sal- 
ary, and  endeavor  to  assist  your  struggling  family,  and  we 
will  discuss  your  affairs  this  very  afternoon,  over  a  Christmas 
bowl  of  smoking  bishop,  Bob !  Make  up  the  fires,  and  buy 
another  coal-scuttle  before  you  dot  another  i,  Bob  Cratchit ! " 

Scrooge  was  better  than  his  word.  He  did  it  all,  and  in- 
finitely more  ;  and  to  Tiny  Tim,  who  did  not  die,  he  was  a 
second  father.  He  became  as  good  a  friend,  as  good  a  mas- 
ter, and  as  good  a  man,  as  the  good  old  city  knew,  or  any 
other  good  old  city,  town,  or  borough  in  the  good  old 
world.  Some  people  laughed  to  see  the  alteration  in  him, 
but  he  let  them  laugh,  and  little  heeded  them  ;  for  he  was 
wise  enough  to  know  that  nothing  ever  happened  on  this 
globe,  for  good,  at  which  some  people  did  not  have  their  fill 
of  laughter  in  the  outset ;  and,  knowing  that  such  as  these 
would  be  blind  anyway,  he  thought  it  quite  as  well  that 
they  should  wrinkle  up  their  eyes  in  grins,  as  have  the  mal- 


A    CHRISTMAS    CAROL. 


Ill 


ady  in  less  attractive  forms.     His  own  heart  laughed,  and 
that  was  quite  enough  for  him. 

He  had  no  further  intercourse  with  Spirits,  but  lived  up- 
on the  Total  Abstinence  Principle,  ever  afterwards  ;  and  it 
was  always  said  of  him,  that  he  knew  how  to  keep  Christ- 
mas well,  if  any  man  alive  possessed  the  knowledge.  May 
that  be  truly  said  of  us,  and  all  of  us  !  And  so,  as  Tiny 
Tim  observed,  God  bless  Us,  Every  One ! 


v/MAIM-lVlV 


^Aavaaniv>      '0ahvjj8IHv> 


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